Eublemma amoena (Hubner, 1803)

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 : 311

16. Eublemma amoena (H̡bner, [1803])

— Vale de Moinhos, Vila Nova de Foz Côa, Guarda. 240 m a.s.l. MGRS: 29TPF5847. 29.V.2013. Eduardo Marabuto leg. At light-trap .

Xerothermophilous species known from dry Mediterranean environments between Spain and central Asia. It is apparently widespread but local in Iberia ( Calle, 1983), including in provinces bordering Portugal such as Galicia - one observation by Silva Cruz & GonÇalves (1950) recovered in Fernández Vidal (2012); Castilla y León ( Magro & Jambrina Pérez, 2015) in Valladolid, León ( González Estébanez & Manceñido González, 2012), Ávila ( Blázquez-Caselles, 2008) and Zamora ( Jambrina et al., 2003); Extremadura ( Nóvoa Pérez et al., 2002) in Cáceres ( Blázquez-Caselles, 2014) and Badajoz ( Ortiz-García et al., 1992). Larvae are cited as feeding on Onopordum acanthium , a thistle with a limited distribution in NE Portugal ( Clamote et al., 2020), so the species may not be found much beyond its distribution, unless it also uses other host-plants. The species had already been cited for Portugal (Vizela, Minho) by Silva Cruz & Wattison (1931) and Mindelo (Porto) ( Monteiro, 1959), records dismissed by Corley (2008, 2015) because no specimen was traced. Both lie outside the xerothermophilous facies of usual habitats occupied by the species and hold no populations of the foodplant.