Aphomia murciella ( Zerny, 1914 )

Šumpich, Jan, 2014, Description of the female of Aphomia murciella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Galleriinae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 54 (2), pp. 785-788 : 786-788

Aphomia murciella ( Zerny, 1914)

( Figs 1–12 )

Material examined. SPAIN: ANDALUCIA: Prov.Almeria,Tabernas env., Rambla de Tabernas, 400 m a.s.l., 3.viii.2010, 16 JJ 4 ♀♀, J. Šumpich leg. ( NMPC, JSPC, GEPC).

Description of the female ( Figs 4–5 ). Wingspan 18–22 mm, generally larger than in males (17–19 mm). Labial palpi well developed, moderately curved, brownish. Antennae ¿liform. Coloration of wings similar to males, but generally darker with less contrast markings; black dot in discoidal area less distinct while well visible in males including dark specimens.

Female genitalia ( Figs 6–9 ). Papillae anales very short. Both anterior and posterior apophyses are very long, the ratio of their lengths is approximately 1:1.7. Ostium bursae cup- -shaped, membranous, its bottom edge is reinforced with a narrow, strongly sclerotized arc. Antrum moderately sclerotized, fairly broad and slightly conical. Ductus bursae very narrow, delicate, helical towards antrum and slightly expanded to transition into the corpus bursae. Bursa copulatrix pear-shaped, extremely delicate, without signum.

Remarks. The colour pattern of adults from Tabernas is less prominent than in the types (only males), the dark streak from the base of forewings reaching third to half the forewing length and the black spot in the discoidal area is more distinct.

Differential diagnosis. The costal area of A. murciella is generally pale compared to other European Aphomia species. The female genitalia of A. murciella are somewhat similar to those of Aphomia unicolor (Staudinger, 1879) , but they differ in having both apophyses very long; the ratio of posterior apophyse length to eighth abdominal segment width is 6.2, whilst it is only 1.8 in A. unicolor . The worn specimens of A. murciella could be mixed with Corcyra cephalonica (Stainton, 1866) because of very similar structure of the male genitalia ( Figs 10–12 ). The female genitalia of A. murciella differ from C. cephalonica signi¿cantly in the length and thickness of the ductus bursae ( SLAMKA 2006).

Bionomics. The original description does not provide any habitat details. The specimen from Alfacar from 28.vii.1927 was captured at an altitude of 1500 m ( SLAMKA 2006). Moths from Tabernas were caught in early August at an altitude of 400 m in an arid locality with sparse vegetation ( Fig. 13 ).

Distribution. Southern Spain: Murcia ( ZERNY 1914), Andalucia ( SLAMKA 2006; this paper), and Valencia: Alicante (La Marina, 16.ix.2001, more JJ, J. Wolschrijn leg., J. Asselbergs det. (GP 4894), coll. J. Wolschrijn & J. Asselbergs) (J. Asselbergs, pers. comm.).

Figures

Figs 1–5. Habitus of Aphomia murciella (Zerny, 1914), Tabernas. 1–3 – males (18, 17 and 19 mm); 4–5 – females (20 and 22 mm).

Figs 6–12. Genitalia of Aphomia murciella (Zerny, 1914). 6–9 – female genitalia: 6 – general view; 7–8 – detail of ostium area; 9 – abdominal segments I and II. 10–12 – males: 10 – general view; 11–12 – phallus with juxta (11 – lateral view, 12 – dorsal view).

Fig. 13. Habitat of Aphomia murciella (Zerny, 1914) near Tabernas.