Polia (Polia) serratilinea (Treitschke, 1825)

Varga, Zoltán, Ronkay, Gábor, Nagy, Jenő & Ronkay, László, 2020, Contribution To The Taxonomy And Phylogeny Of The Genus Polia Ochsenheimer, 1816 (Noctuidae, Noctuinae, Hadenini): Species Groups And Pairs In The Holarctic Subgenus Polia S. Str., Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 66 (1), pp. 35-67 : 53

Polia (Polia) serratilinea (Treitschke, 1825)

Mamestra serratilinea Treitschke, 1825 , Die Schmetterlinge von Europa 5 (2): 38. Type-locality: Austria, Vienna district. Lectotype: male, in coll. HNHM.

Taxonomic notes. Numerous subspecies of this externally strikingly variable species are described. The nominotypical subspecies is restricted to the eastern periphery of the Austrian Alps. Further subspecies occur in the Central and western Alps, and Alsace ( Mamestra serratilinea helvetica Schawerda, 1925 ), Balkan peninsula ( Polia serratilinea kowatschevi Drenovsky, 1931 ), Central Anatolia ( Polia serratilinea pinkeri Varga, 1974 ), and more clearly differentiated in Central Asia ( Polia serratilinea spalax (Alphéraky, 1887) , in the Hindukush-Himalaya area ( Polia serratilinea tenebricosa Hacker et Weigert, 1990 ), but also in western Mongolia ( Polia serratilinea eremorealis Varga, 1974 ).

This species shows some convergence to P. propodea in the bifid terminal part of the right saccular process.The two lineages are, however, rather distant by their CO1 sequences. The asymmetrisation of the clavus and saccular processes show an evident geographical variation; its analysis and taxonomic interpretation will be treated in a further publication.