Nemapogon cloacella ( Haworth, 1828 )

Landry, Jean-François, Nazari, Vazrick, Dewaard, Jeremy R., Mutanen, Marko, Lopez-Vaamonde, Carlos, Huemer, Peter & Hebert, Paul D. N., 2013, Shared but overlooked: 30 species of Holarctic Microlepidoptera revealed by DNA barcodes and morphology, Zootaxa 3749 (1), pp. 1-93 : 12

3. Nemapogon cloacella ( Haworth, 1828) ( Tineidae : Nemapogoninae )

Tinea cloacella Haworth, 1828: 563 . Type locality: England.

BOLD:ABY6823

Palearctic distribution. Widespread in the Palaearctic Region .

New North American records. Canada: British Columbia, Port Coquitlam ( Vancouver area ), at light in an urban backyard , 26 Jun 2006, 1 ♂; 7 Jun 2007, 1 ♀; 28 Jun 2008, 1 ♂ ( CNC) .

Diagnosis. Externally this species is similar to N. granella (L.) and N. variatella (Clemens) , which also have a predominantly brown ground colour variously irrorated with dirty white patches on the forewings. However, cloacella has generally darker forewings and deeper yellow head tufts. In Europe, cloacella is most similar to N. wolffiella . The genitalia of cloacella are similarly configured to those of other Nemapogon with differences in details. In the male genitalia, the caudal margin of the uncus is slightly produced into two small, setose lobes (broadly concave in variatella , straight in granella ), the gnathos arms are L-shaped with pointed “elbows” and apices (resemble a pair of sharp boots) (in variatella , apices dentate and resembling a pair of small hands; in granella , apices and “elbows” rounded); inner lobe of valva blunt with apex outwardly oriented, and shorter than outer lobe (in variatella , inner lobe sharply incurved; in granella , inner lobe apically emarginate) phallus slightly sinuate with apex unarmed (in variatella and granella , phallus shaft with two sections and appearing “broken” in middle, apex toothed). In female genitalia, the ostium bursae is situated at the anterior margin of S8 on a short conical, medial sterigma, the posterior margin of S8 has a transverse band with a medial notch, and the distal half of the ductus bursae is sclerotized (in variatella and granella , the sterigma is a transverse plate about as wide as S8 and the caudal margin of S8 is differently configured).

Larval host. Primarily bracket fungi outdoors, but also a wide range of food materials indoors including dryrot fungi on decayed wood, stored vegetable products, grain and dry fruit, similar to those of N. granella (Pelham- Clinton 1985).

Note. This species was included in earlier North American checklists ( Dyar 1903 with a question mark, McDunnough 1939). It was not repeated in the more recent checklist ( Hodges 1983), possibly because its occurrence was never confirmed or was based on misidentifications. It is easily confused with variatella and granella and genitalia should be examined to confirm identifications. This is most likely an introduction and it is probably more common than the few confirmed records indicate.