Lobesia limoniana ( Millière, 1860 )

Marabuto, Eduardo, 2022, Spialia rosae Hernández-Roldán, DApporto, Dincă, Vicente & VilA, 2016, and 17 moth species new for the fauna of Portugal (Insecta: Lepidoptera), Arquivos Entomolóxicos 25, pp. 305-322 : 308-309

8. Lobesia limoniana ( Millière, 1860)

— Ludo, Ria Formosa, Faro. 2 m a.s.l. MGRS: 29SNA8997. 25.XII.2022. Eduardo Marabuto leg. Larval spinnings on Limonium ovalifolium . ( Fig. 2c ). Adults reared ( Fig. 2d ) and gen. det .

— Vilamoura (marina), Faro. 1 m a.s.l. MGRS: 29SNB7703. 02.XII.2022. Eduardo Marabuto leg. Larval spinnings on Limonium algarvense . Adults reared .

A species with a chiefly West-Mediterranean distribution and deeply associated with coastal salt-marshes, where larvae feed on Limonium spp. ( Plumbaginaceae ). Occurs in France, including Corsica ( Millière, 1860; Kennel, 1916), Spain in Cataluña ( Baixeras, 1990), Alicante ( Huemer & Wieser, 2010) and Andalucía ( Huertas Dionisio, 2002, 2007, 2022), Italy, including Sicily ( Karsholt & Razowski, 1996; Razowski, 2003) and in Greece ( Trematerra, 2007).

In Andalucía, it occurs in the contiguous salt-marshes to the Portuguese Algarve, in Ayamonte (Huelva), where adults have been reported in at least two annual generations from January to April and August to October ( Huertas Dionisio, 2022). The early stages have been described by Millière (1860) and more recently by Huertas Dionisio (2022). Larvae can be found in the flower-heads, buds and leaves of Limonium algarvense and L. narbonense during the winter ( Huertas Dionisio, 2002, 2007, 2022).

It was in L. ovalifolium that several larvae were found in spun-up shelters made out of leaves. Upon rearing, the identity of the species was confirmed through adult morphology and dissection. The species is very similar in all stages with Lobesia indusiana (Zeller, 1847) , which is already known from Portugal ( Corley, 2015). However syntopic and ecologically similar the two species are ( Razowski, 2003), they are apparently seasonally asynchronic, feed on different Limonium spp. and can be distinguished on some early stage details and adult wingspan ( Huertas Dionisio, 2022). This represents a westward expansion of the known distribution of the species by about 65 km.

HESPERIIDAE

Figures

Fig. 2.- Habitus of new Portuguese species. a.- Epiphyas postvittana. b.- Spialia rosae. c.- Lobesia limoniana, L5 larva on Limonium ovalifolium. d.- Lobesia limoniana. e-f.- Titanio tarraconensis. g.- Apochima flabellaria. h.- Idaea alicantaria. Photos: Eduardo Marabuto (a-f & h); Dinis Versa Silva (g).