Trifurcula (Glaucolepis) teucriella ( Chrétien, 1914 )

van Nieukerken, Erik J., Laštůvka, Aleš & Laštůvka, Zdenĕk, 2006, The Nepticulidae and Opostegidae of mainland France and Corsica: an annotated catalogue (Lepidoptera: Nepticuloidea), Zootaxa 1216 (1216), pp. 1-114 : 59-60

Trifurcula (Glaucolepis) teucriella ( Chrétien, 1914) Fig. 19–20.

F: Nepticula teucriella Chrétien 1914: 270 —07 [types]

Stigmella teucriella ; Lhomme [1963]: 1205 —07

Material. 07: 1 ♂, Lectotype (here designated), La Voulte, 20.iv.1896, Teucrium chamaedrys , e.l. 6.vi.1896, Chrétien, gen. EvN1970 ( MNHN); 3♂, 3♀, TM, St. Martin d’Ardèche , 17.iii.2001, Teucrium chamaedrys , e.l. iv.2001, AL & ZL.

Remarks. A rare species, the junior authors succeeded in finding it for the first time in France since its discovery 90 years ago. Further known only from Spain (van Nieukerken et al. 2004a).

Chrétien described ‘ Nepticula teucriella’ on the basis of an unspecified number of specimens, and certainly did have more than one specimen at the time (‘J’ai obtenu le papillon en mai et en août’). We illustrate here ( Fig. 19–20) for the first time the male genitalia of the single syntype found by us, which was overlooked by Klimesch (1975b) during his studies of nepticulid types in the Paris Museum. The genitalia resemble those of the previous species, but we did not observe the long curved cornutus that is present in T. thymi , also, the gnathos is more rounded in teucriella than in thymi . Because the species in this subgenus are difficult to identify, we designate here this specimen as the Lectotype to firmly establish its identity.

According to Chrétien (1914) the species has three generations, he found larvae in March­April, July and October, with adults emerging in May and August. However, according to the label data, the lectotype was reared in June.