Empria pravei Dovnar-Zapolskij, 1925 *

Empria pravei Dovnar-Zapolskij, 1925: 37-38. Lectotype ♀ ZIN_Empria_11 (ZIN), here designated. Type locality: Stavropol, Stavropol Krai, Russia.

Bulgarian material.

Burgas: 1♂ (DEI-GISHym88758), Primorsko 4 km NW, 20 m, 42.300N, 27.729E, 04.04.2018. 1♀, locality as previous, 10.04.2018 .

Varna: 3♀ (including DEI-GISHym84166), 3♂ (including DEI-GISHym88817, DEI-GISHym88735), Staro Oryahovo 2 km SW, 120 m, 42.976N, 27.787E, 09.04.2018. 1♀, locality as previous, 11.04.2018 . 2♂, Goren Chiflik 1 km SW, 40 m, 43.001N, 27.621E, 13.04.2018.

The specimens were collected in woodland, from the herb layer, at places where a Geum species (probably Geum urbanum L.) was rather abundant. Of other herbaceous Rosaceae, Fragaria?viridis Weston, and Rubus fruticosa L. agg. were commonly present. Female DEI-GISHym84166 was sleeved on a potted Geum plant, taken from the collection locality, on which it then laid eggs in the leaf-blade (Fig. 37). Several larvae (Fig. 35; https://sdei.de/ecatsym/ecat_bild.php?NameNr=1003703&DateiName=25774.JPG) were reared to maturity on this plant.

Empria pravei was described from two female syntypes (one in ZIN, examined by MP) from Stavropol (Dovnar-Zapolskij 1925). This locality, in the North Caucasus, lies outside the area treated by Taeger et al. (2006) as “Europe” . Other published records are from Armenia and Iran (Sundukov 2017). The species is very close to E. parvula (see discussion under that species). The record from Mongolia (Zombori 1972) is incorrect due to misidentification of E. mongolica (Konow, 1895). Empria pravei might be restricted to areas not far from the Black Sea and south of the Caspian Sea .