Amphipyra (Pyrois) cinnamomea (Goeze, 1781)

Bevacqua, Laura, Zucco, Giada, Garofalo, Kevin, Muzzalupo, Innocenzo & Scalercio, Stefano, 2023, Lost in hostile lands: moths of conservation concern in cultivated and suburban areas of south Italy, Nature Conservation 54, pp. 203-215 : 203

publication ID

https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.54.108425

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E9E25490-4B2F-4DFA-984A-EE64215A09E8

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/75A06477-BE39-5DD6-BAE2-8C8E99BFA5AC

treatment provided by

Nature Conservation by Pensoft

scientific name

Amphipyra (Pyrois) cinnamomea (Goeze, 1781)
status

 

Amphipyra (Pyrois) cinnamomea (Goeze, 1781) View in CoL

Fig. 2 View Figure 2

New records.

Calabria: Coppone (Altomonte Municipality, Cosenza Province) 39.689°N, 16.115°E, 5.VII.2022 (1 male), 19.VII.2022 (1 male).

Two adult male specimens, newly emerged, (Fig. 2 View Figure 2 ) were found in July in two out of ten sites monitored in the study area, at the margin of semi-natural patches occasionally burned and near to human artefacts (Fig. 3 View Figure 3 ). No specimens were collected within the cultivated land and within the best-preserved habitats represented by riparian forests with Populus , Ulmus , Lonicera and others deciduous trees on which the larvae are known to feed ( Rákosy 1996).

Other studies report adults from the beginning of spring-time ( Fiori 1880) to October ( Prola et al. 1978), likely as the result of adult aestivation. In peninsular Italy, the mimetic and elusive A. cinnamomea was found in Mediterranean habitats with Quercus ilex ( Parenzan 1979), in Mediterranean maquis ( Nappini and Dapporto 2009) and in areas with sparse Quercus virgiliana trees and olive groves (this study). This species has long been considered rare ( Bertoloni 1849; Fiori 1880) and only five specimens have been found in Italy during the last century (Fig. 4 View Figure 4 ). Records in Sardinia should be confirmed, as the only available record is the generic citation in the Italian checklist ( Raineri and Zilli 1995). Moreover, the citation in Parenzan and Porcelli (2006) is wrong as the mention in Rocci and Turati (1925) refers to Sideridis cinnamomea Turati, 1913 that is a form of Mythimna sicula (Treitschke, 1835) described from Sardinia ( Seitz 1938).

Süssenbach and Fiedler (1999) found that the abundance of species belonging to the genus Amphipyra can be underestimated by using light traps only, as they appear to be more abundant when bait traps were used. However, A. cinnamomea seems to be very rare in any case as it has never been detected with this method in Italy and it is also absent in the species list gathered from a survey of Lepidoptera carried out with bait traps in an area 20 km around the collecting locality ( Scalercio 2006).

A. cinnamomea is considered a Mediterranean species extinct north of the Alps since 2007 ( Fibiger et al. 2007). In Germany, it seems to be extinct and last records from Rhineland-Palatinate, Hessen and Baden-Württemberg date back to 1881 ( Wachlin and Bolz 2012). It was common near Wiesbaden around the 1880s, becoming rare and lastly recorded in 1898 or 1899 ( Steiner 1997). In Switzerland, its range was strongly reduced as it was only recorded in the south-westernmost part of the Central Highlands ( SwissLepTeam 2010) as all records after the 1960s were from the vicinity of Valaisan Rhône between Briga and Martigny ( Wymann et al. 2015).

General distribution.

Amphipyra (Pyrois) cinnamomea is recorded from Andorra, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Corsica, Croatia, French mainland, Germany, Greek mainland, Hungary, Italian mainland, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, Spanish mainland, Switzerland, Serbia, Montenegro and doubtfully from Sardinia and Slovakia ( Karsholt and Nieukerken 2013). Outside Europe, it is only known for a few specimens collected in Turkey and Iran (Fibiger and Hacker 2007).

Italian distribution.

Valle d’Aosta: Vens, Aosta, 1850 m elev., 16.IX.1989 (1 ex.) ( Faquaet 1991).

Piemonte: Alpi, Northern Savoia, luglio-agosto ( Ghiliani 1852).

Emilia: Bologna Botanic Garden, summer, 1 larva ( Bertoloni 1849); San Faustino, Modena, 2 specimens at the beginning of spring-time ( Fiori 1880).

Toscana: Collelungo, Parco Regionale della Maremma, Grosseto, VIII.2003 (1 ex.) ( Nappini and Dapporto 2009).

Umbria: San Faustino, Terni, 4.X.1970 (1 ex.) ( Prola et al. 1978).

Abruzzo: San Potito, L’Aquila, 10.VIII.1958 (1 ex.), 9.X.1972 (1 ex.) ( Prola et al. 1978).

Puglia: Pianelle, Taranto, 350-450 m elev., 2.VI (1 male) ( Parenzan 1979).

Sardegna: ( Raineri and Zilli 1995).

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Lepidoptera

Family

Noctuidae

Genus

Amphipyra