Elatobia montelliella ( Schantz, 1951 )

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 : 12-17

4. Elatobia montelliella ( Schantz, 1951) ( Tineidae : Tineinae )

Tinea montelliella Schantz, 1951: 18 . Type locality: Finland: Lapponia kemensis, Muonio.

BOLD:AAG0142

Palearctic distribution. Finland.

New North American records. Canada: Alberta, Kootenay Plains , 20 Jul 2009, 1 ♂, 1 ♀ ( CNC) ; Waterton National Park , Jul 2008, 1 ex. ( BIOUG) ; Jasper National Park , 2010, 1 ex. ( BIOUG) . United States: Utah, Ephraim Canyon , 20 Jul 2006, 1 ♂ ( USNM) .

Diagnosis. A medium-sized (forewing span 16–22 mm), slender, blackish tineid with proportionally slender wings and abdomen. The type is described by Bengtsson et al. (2008) as follows: “Wingspan 16 mm. Head greyish black. Forewing greyish black with brownish hue, sparsely strewn with pale scales and with a blackish spot at the outer margin of the discal cell.” In male genitalia, the uncus is elongate and bilobate; the tegumen is transversely narrow and has a pair of large, prominent labetal lobes; the vinculum is posteriorly deeply incised and the saccus is somewhat longer than the valvae; the valva is apically incurved and bifid with sharp points; the phallus has three short, stout cornuti. The only other described North American species, E. carbonella Dietz , differs in the proportionally shorter lateral lobes of the tegumen, the straight and truncate apex of the valva, and phallus with four very long and slender cornuti. The female genitalia is here described and illustrated for the first time for the species from North American specimens: Sterigma somewhat U-shaped with posterior margin protruded into a pair of rounded lobes that are shorter than S8 but posteriorly projected beyond ostium; surface transversely wrinkled; medial area above ostium longitudinally elevated, ridge-like; ductus bursae proportionally short, about the same length as S8, with straight sclerotized walls and internally ridged, with a distal swelling, short posteriormost section anterad of ostium membranous; membrane inside ostium bursae with patch of very fine spinules; corpus bursae elongate-ovoid, with a single tooth-like signum in the middle, posterior half wrinkled; ovipositor slender, about twice as long as S8. Elabotia carbonella differs in the shape and length of the sterigma and its lobes which are thin and about as long as S8, the deeply emarginate S8, the longer and thicker sclerotized section of the ductus bursae, and the signum which is either tiny or absent.

Larval host. Unknown. However, the related E. fuliginosella , which is sympatric in Europe, is associated with forest fires and prefers burnt, sun-exposed trees. It has been bred from the thick bark of old, live pine trees; larvae were observed living in bark with a lot of insect holes and were detected by the presence of silk and protruding frass ( Saarela 1995). Many adults have been collected on partially burnt pine trees which clearly are preferred, but species associated with burnt forests typically occur in lower numbers on trees that are not burnt, but are sunexposed and preferably in bad condition (MM, pers. obs.). This is likely the case also with montelliella .

Note. In Europe, the species remains known only from the holotype male (barcoded) collected in Muonio, Finland, despite intense collecting activity in the area of the type locality since its discovery, which is dominated by xeric pine forest. Because forest fires are now very rare and restricted in Finland, it is possible that montelliella has vanished through habitat loss. In North America, the name carbonella has been applied to all Elatobia without checking genitalia. Although we did not conduct a thorough verification of North American material, at least two undescribed species are represented including one that is barcoded (BOLD:AAG0124) (specimens in CNC and USNM), in addition to monteliella.