Pyralis posticana, Fabricius, 1794

Baixeras, Joaquín & Karsholt, Ole, 2011, The Tortricidae described by J. C. Fabricius (Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 3127, pp. 1-37 : 18

posticana Fabricius, 1794

Pyralis posticana Fabricius, 1794: 267 .

Type locality. France, Paris (“Habitat Parisiis Mus. Dom. Bosc”).

Material examined. Kiel coll. Only the name label.

Identity. Clepsis spectrana (Treistschke, 1830) ( Tortricinae , Archipini ).

Remarks. Pyralis posticana is a senior synonym of Clepsis spectrana (Treitschke) according to Werneburg (1864). This indication is collected by Beccaloni et al. (2005); the synonymy was overlooked by Brown (2005). Obraztsov (1957) was critical of this association and suggested that the species may be a synonym of Ramapesia gnomana Clerck. The inclusion of this doubtful and unused senior synonym would thread a stable and widely used name. In addition C. spectrana (‘straw-colored tortrix moth’ or ‘cyclamen tortrix’) is an invasive polyphagous species, feeding on a large variety of herbaceous crops, fruit trees and greenhouse ornamental plants (Carter 1984, Dickler 1991, Hill 1987, Zhang 1994, among others). The species has been introduced in North America (Dang et al. 1996). According to the provisions of Article 23.9 (ICZN 1999), we propose the conservation of Treitschke’s name (nomen protectum) and the suppression of the Fabrician name posticana (nomen oblitum). Appendix 3 lists 38 references by more than ten different authors that have used C. spectrana in the last 50 years.