Ochrodia subdiminutella ( Stainton, 1867 )

Bidzilya, Oleksiy, Karsholt, Ole, Kravchenko, Vasiliy & Šumpich, Jan, 2019, An annotated checklist of Gelechiidae (Lepidoptera) of Israel with description of two new species, Zootaxa 4677 (1), pp. 1-68 : 54-55

Ochrodia subdiminutella ( Stainton, 1867)

Gelechia subdiminutella Stainton, 1867 —Tineina of Syria and Asia Minor: 45.

Gelechia jamaicensis Walsingham, 1897 —Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1897: 76.

Gnorimoschema bucolica Meyrick, 1904 —Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 29 (2): 317.

Lita zygophyllella Rebel, 1912 —Dt. ent. Z. Iris 26 (1): 89.

Phthorimaea ericnista Meyrick, 1914 —Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 10 (8): 245.

Aristotelia ferritincta Turner, 1919 —Proc. R. Soc. Qd 31 (10): 115.

Phthorimaea ochrodeta Meyrick, 1923 —Exot. Microlep. 3 (1–2): 23.

Phthorimaea extorris Meyrick, 1923 —Exot. Microlep. 3 (1–2): 50.

Phthorimaea crocoleuca Meyrick, 1923 —Exot. Microlep. 3 (1–2): 51.

Lita unitella Turati, 1930 —Atti Soc. ital. Sci. nat. 69: 78.

Aristotelia tribulivora Dumont, 1931 —Bull. Soc. ent. Fr. 1931: 149.

Aristotelia pulverea Janse, 1950 —Moths S.Afr. 5 (2): 115.

Scrobipalpa turgida Janse, 1951 —Moths S.Afr. 5 (3): 218.

Gnorimoschema infallax Gozmány, 1960 —Ann. hist.-nat. Mus. nat. hung. 52: 417.

Gnorimoschema tractatum Gozmány, 1960 —Ann. hist.-nat. Mus. nat. hung. 52: 418.

Records. Stainton 1867: 46; Meyrick 1923: 23 ( ochrodeta ); Bodenheimer 1930b: 377 ( ochrodeta ); Amsel 1933: 125 ( suasoria ); Amsel 1935c: 263 ( ochrodeta & suasoria ); Bodenheimer 1937: 101 ( ochrodeta & suasoria ).

Material examined. 1 ♂, Jericho (Pal), Lichtfang , 30.iv.1930 (gen. slide Am. 4853) ; 1 ♂, Jericho (Pal), Lichtfang, 11.iv.1930 (gen. slide A. 790); Jericho Z. 307, Balanitis aegyptica, 7-25.v.1930 (gen. slides A. 285, A. 284) ; 1 ♂, Tel-Aviv ( Dune ), 7.iii.1932 (Einsler) (gen. slide A. 844) ; 1 ♂, Georgskloster, Wadi el Kelt, Lichtfang , 1.iv.1930 (gen. slide A. 818) ; 1 ♀, same but 21.v.1930 (gen. slide A. 814); 1 ♂, same data but 11.iv.1930 (gen. slide A. 799) (all SMNK) ; 1 ♂, Hazeva, Field School , 6.iv.1998, Malaise Trap (Ashkenazi) (gen. slide 161/18, O. Bidzilya) ; 1 ♀, Ein Gedi , 17.viii.1968 (gen. slide 125/18, O. Bidzilya) (all TAU) ; 2 ♂, 2 ♀, 8 exx, Jericho, Kalia , v.2004 (Kravchen- ko) (gen. slide 5706 Hendriksen) ; 2 ♂, Jerusalem, 6.vi.2004 (Kravchenko) (all TAU, ZMUC) .

Host plant. Balanites aegyptiaca L. (Delile) ( Bodenheimer 1930b: 377; Amsel & Hering, 1931: 124).

Distribution. South Europe, subtropical and tropical Africa and Asia ( Huemer & Karsholt 2010: 222).

Remarks. Gelechia subdiminutella was described from two males and one female from Jaffa (“Jeffa”) and “plains of Jordan ” ( Stainton 1867: 45). The type specimens in NHMUK match the specimens listed above from Jericho, Kalia.

Phthorimaea crocoleuca was described from one male, which Buxton bred from a larva feeding on Balanites aegyptiaca by Jericho ( Meyrick 1923: 51). The holotype has lost its abdomen ( Clarke 1969: 160–161), but externally matches well O. subdiminutella .

The genus Ochrodia is in need of revision. Povolný (e.g., 1972: 93–94) was unable to separate the species and synonymized all Ochrodia species under O. subdiminutella . A revision of the genus is outside the scope of this study, but we notice that our material includes at least two Ochrodia species.