Epiphyas postvittana (Walker, 1863)

Marabuto, Eduardo, 2022, Spialia rosae Hernández-Roldán, DApporto, Dincă, Vicente & VilA, 2016, and 17 moth species new for the fauna of Portugal (Insecta: Lepidoptera), Arquivos Entomolóxicos 25, pp. 305-322 : 308

7. Epiphyas postvittana (Walker, 1863)

— Peninha, Colares, Sintra, Lisboa. 330 m a.s.l. MGRS: 29 SMC5991 . 20.X.2014. Eduardo Marabuto leg. 2 specimens at light-trap. ( Fig. 2a ) .

Chronological first Iberian record, the nearest known records in Europe lie in NW France ( Cosson, 2009) and the extreme south of Spain ( Gaona et al., 2020).

The light brown Apple moth is originally native to Australia but has been known in New Zealand since 1891 ( EvAns, 1952) And in GreAt BritAin since the 1930’s ( Meyrick, 1937; BAker, 1968), from where it may have colonised Ireland ( Bond, 1998), France since 2000 ( Cosson, 2009), while scattered records exist from the Netherlands ( Wolschrijn & Kuchlein, 2006) and Sweden ( Svensson, 2009). New Caledonia and Hawaii have also been colonised ( Danthanarayana, 1975), and more recently California ( Varela et al., 2008; Brown et al., 2010) and the Azores ( Vieira & Karsholt, 2010; Vieira et al., 2012; Pérez Santa-Rita et al., 2018). After the finding reported here, it has been further recorded in the extreme south of Spain (Cádiz) by Gaona et al. (2020), so the species may be expanding. The caterpillars are extremely polyphagous, known to be able to feed on up to 500 plant species belonging to 363 genera in 121 different families ( Suckling & Brockerhoff, 2010), and hence the species has potential economic importance, justifying aggressive control measures such as the ones being carried out in California ( Venette et al., 2003) . The spreading of the species and ulterior finding in Portugal follows the climatic suitability of SW Europe and particularly the western coastal areas of the continent for the species, according to ecological niche-modelling ( He, 2010).

Figures

Fig. 2.- Habitus of new Portuguese species. a.- Epiphyas postvittana. b.- Spialia rosae. c.- Lobesia limoniana, L5 larva on Limonium ovalifolium. d.- Lobesia limoniana. e-f.- Titanio tarraconensis. g.- Apochima flabellaria. h.- Idaea alicantaria. Photos: Eduardo Marabuto (a-f & h); Dinis Versa Silva (g).