T. RUITEN' & O. KARSHOLT 2 'embl, Heidelberg, Germany Zoologisk Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark BRYOTROPHA MUNDELLA (DOUGLAS): A NEW SYNONYM OF BRYOTROPHA UMBROSELLA (ZELLER) (LEPIDOPTERA, GELECHIIDAE) Rutten, T. & O. Karsholt, 1998. Bryotropha mundella (Douglas): a new synonym of Bryotropha umbrosella (Zeiler) (Lepidoptera Gelechiidae). -Tijdschrift voor Entomologie l4l: 109-114, figs. 1-13.[issn 0040-7496]. Published 30 November 1998. The status of Bryotropha mundella (Douglas) is discussed. Its genitalia are found to be identical to those of B. umbrosella (Zeiler). As to the forewings of these two taxa, numerous intermedi-ates exist spanning the whole range between the whitish nominate form of B. mundella and the blackish nominate form of B. umbrosella. Geographically, B. mundella co-distributes with B. umbrosella. The two moths are found in the same period of the year and are active during the same time of the day. We therefore conclude that B. mundella is a light form of B. umbrosella. Lectotypes of Gelechia umbrosella Zeiler, 1839, and of its synonyms G. munde ila Douglas, 1850 (syn. n.), G portlandicella Richardson, 1890 and G anacampsoidella Hering, 1924 are desig-nated. [B. umbrosella is recorded from Spain for the first time]. Correspondence: T. Rutten, embl, Meyerhofstrasse 1, D-69012 Heidelberg, Germany. E-mail
[email protected] Key words. -Lepidoptera; Gelechiidae; new synonym. The holarctic genus Bryotropha Heinemann, 1870 consists of almost 80 nominal species, about 40 of which are currently recognised as valid. The genus has never been revised, and especially in the south-western part of the palaearctic region there are a num-ber of undescribed species. Even among specialists, Bryotropha is regarded as one of the more difficult genera of Microlepidoptera. Pierce and Daltry (1938) divided the genus into two subgenera, Bryotropha s. str. and Mniophaga Pierce & Daltry, 1938. In the subgenus Bryotropha the male genitalia have a strong, specialised gnathos while the fe-male genitalia have a plate-like signum with two trans-verse ridges (Sattler 1971). The subgenus Mniophaga was reserved for species in which the male has a rather small gnathos and the female a plate-like signum with strong spikes at the corners. There are, however, inter-mediate taxa, and Sattler (loc. cit.) concluded that a subdivision of Bryotropha is unjustified. Differences in the genitalia are distinct between members of the first group ('subgenus' Bryotropha), but less distinct be-tween species of the second group ('subgenus' Mnio-phaga) (Rutten, in press). The latter include the small, 'dark' Bryotropha species of northern and central Eu-rope, which often cause much confusion. The light coloured B. mundella (Douglas) also belongs to this group and this moth is the subject of the present paper. According to the original description by Douglas (1850), the distinct feature of B. mundella is its light greyish ground colour which distinguish this moth from other members of the genus. Over the years, however, the name B. mundella has been given to a whole range of small Bryotropha with ground colour varying from nearly white to dark grey. Doubts were raised whether all these forms are representatives of B. mundella (see e.g. Pierce & Daltry 1938). Unfortunately, individual variations within Bry-otropha species are poorly investigated and the geni-talia of B. mundella have never been properly described. The drawings published by Pierce and Metcalfe (1935) are not suited for an identification. In the best study on Bryotropha so far, Svensson (1962) describes the genitalia of B. mundella as resembling those of B. um-brosella (Zeiler). The description and drawings of B. mundella given in Piskunov (1990: 970, 977) proba-bly refer to B. afftnis or B. similis (Stainton). Speci-mens identified by Piskunov as B. mundella and ex-amined by us belonged to B. similis. B. mundella is a rather scarce moth, especially on mainland Europe. Only a handful were known from 109
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