Titanio tarraconensis Leraut & Luquet, 1982

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 : 310

10. Titanio tarraconensis Leraut & Luquet, 1982

— Serra da Nogueira (summit), BraganÇa. 1300 m a.s.l. MGRS: 29TPG7820. 16.V.2012. Eduardo Marabuto & Tiago Magalhães leg. Daytime spotting. ( Fig. 2e ) .

— Serra da Nogueira, BraganÇa. 1160 m a.s.l. MGRS: 29TPG7723. 16.V.2012. Eduardo Marabuto & Tiago Magalhães leg. Daytime spotting. ( Fig. 2f ) .

A small, day-flying and apparently rare species ( Nel, 2003; Fournier, 2014) with a scattered distribution in France, Spain and Morocco ( Léraut & Luquet, 1982; Slamka, 2006), where it replaces the more widespread European Titanio normalis (H̡bner, 1796). In Spain, there are at least records from Cataluña ( Pérez De-Gregorio, 2004; Ylla & Macià, 2017), Murcia ( Agenjo, 1952; Garre et al., 2021), Comunidad Valenciana ( Ranz, 2021) and Andalucía (iNaturalist, 2022). In any case, all records are a long distance from NE Portugal, which is revealing of both the remarkable biodiversity richness of Serra da Nogueira ( Maravalhas et al., 2004; Marabuto & Maravalhas, 2008) and the elusive character of this species.

The current observation reports to the occurrence of more than five specimens seen along the cleared roadsides, flying in daytime over short vegetation, as short flights, frequently settling on the ground. Although the larvae are cited on Convolvulus cantabrica , this species does not occur in Portugal, and the only locally present bindweed is C. arvensis , an already hypothesised host-plant ( Chrétien, 1898).

GEOMETRIDAE

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).