Elachista karsticola Varenne & Nel, 2018

Huemer, Peter & Van Nieukerken, Erik J., 2021, Identity of some recently described Lepidoptera from France-re-assessed with DNA barcodes and morphology, Zootaxa 4941 (3), pp. 301-337 : 329

Elachista karsticola Varenne & Nel, 2018

Elachista karsticola Varenne & Nel, 2018: 6 , figs. 10–11.

Examined material. Holotype Ƌ: France, Alpes-Maritimes , Courségoules, 950 m, 12.IV.2017, Th. Varenne leg., genitalia slide JN n°31706 ( RCTV).

BOLD Specimen ID TLMF 25313; BOLD Sequence ID LEGEL367-18.

BIN: BOLD:ABW4899

Identity: Elachista maculosella Chrétien, 1896 , syn. nov. ( Fig. 10 )

Remarks. Elachista karsticola was described from a male holotype and separated from the randomly selected species of the E. bifasciella species-group E. sebastella Kaila, 2015 , E. sulcsiella Savenkov, 2013 , E. orstadii Palm, 1943 and E. gruenewaldi Parenti, 2002 on genitalia characters ( Varenne & Nel 2018). The species was recently included in the World Catalogue of Elachistidae as valid taxon ( Kaila 2019). However, the successfully sequenced holotype shares the barcode with E. maculosella , a species described from France and corresponding in morphology but not considered as potential conspecific by Varenne & Nel (2018).According to Kaila (pers. comm.) the taxon falls in the range of intraspecific variation of E. maculosella . We therefore synonymize E. karsticola with E. maculosella .

Figures

FIGURE 10. Neighbor-joining tree of Elachista maculosella incl. E. karsticola and the closest European species E. ipirosella Kaila, 2015 in BOLD