Chionodes electella (Zeller, 1839)

Bidzilya, Oleksiy V. & Budashkin, Yuri I., 2017, New records of Lepidoptera from Ukraine and description of a new species of Caloptilia Huebner, 1825 (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae) from the mountains of Crimea, Nota Lepidopterologica 40 (2), pp. 5-21 : 10-11

Chionodes electella (Zeller, 1839)

Material.

2 ♂, Ukraine, Kiev, Kiev National Taras Shevchenko University, Laboratory of Zoological Museum, on windowsill, 26.vi.2015, 24.vi.2016, leg. O. Bidzilya.

Distribution.

Northern and Central Europe, Russia (North of European part, Amur region) ( Huemer and Karsholt 1999; Ponomarenko 2008). In Ukraine it was known from Chernigov, Lvov and Ivano-Frankovsk regions ( Schille 1930; Gershenzon 1988; Bidzilya et al. 2006).

Remarks.

Two males were found in late June on a windowsill in the laboratory of the Zoological Museum during for two successive years. We assume that a population of the species exists on its host plant, a fir tree ( Picea abies (L.) Karst. ( Pinaceae ) growing in the yard about 20 m away from the window. Ch. electella inhabits coniferous forests within the range of fir trees in western Ukraine. However, the species has also been recorded in artificial plantations (mainly in parks) of Picea abies in the forest zone in northern Ukraine ( Gershenzon 1988). Our record confirms that Ch. electella is broadly distributed outside of the range of its host plant and may exist on single trees growing in isolation in urban habitats. This is similarly true for another gelechiid species, Dichomeris latipennella (Rebel, 1937), which has also been recorded from Kiev based on a single specimen bred from fir cones gathered under a single tree ( Bidzilya et al. 2011).