Thaumetopoea pityocampa (Denis & Schiffermuller, 1775)

Basso, Andrea, Avtzis, Dimitrios, Burban, Christian, Kerdelhue, Carole, Ipekdal, Kahraman, Magnoux, Emmanuelle, Rousselet, Jerome, Negrisolo, Enrico & Battisti, Andrea, 2023, The pine processionary moth Thaumetopoea pityocampa (Notodontidae) species complex: a phylogeny-based revision, Arthropod Systematics & amp; Phylogeny 81, pp. 1031-1050 : 1031

3.3.1. Thaumetopoea pityocampa

Thaumetopoea pityocampa B. [ombyx] Pityocampa [Denis & Schiffermüller], 1775: 58

Neotype.

Adult ♀. Label: Italy, Val Venosta, Silandro, 20/06/2022.

Collection data.

Collected by Andrea Battisti in the field in a forest of Pinus nigra and P. sylvestris . Coordinates: 46°37′30″N, 10°48′12″E, altitude 810 m. Neotype deposited at the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria.

Diagnosis.

The species can be distinguished from other Thaumetopoea species based on several morphological and biological traits (de Freina and Witt 1987). The separation from other taxa included in the same group (Table 1 ) is difficult because of substantial variation of morphological traits within taxa (e.g., individuals from the original site of the material studied and described by Réaumur, Fig. S1 and S11). However, the barcode sequence allows an easy discrimination of T. pityocampa from the three other similar species ( T. wilkinsoni , T. hellenica , and T. mediterranea ), but not from the synonymous T. pityocampa orana .

Description (Fig. 4).

Forewing length 23 mm. Antenna bipectinate, rami more or less equal in length except in apical tenth, where rami become shorter; axis and rami pale yellow-brown. Head small, labial palpus short, directed ventrally, light yellow and covered completely in long, dense brownish hair-like setae; eye surrounded by long brownish hair-like setae; chitinous shiny frontal process (crest, canthus) with 6 teeth, each of them with lateral horns; first tooth pointing dorsally and the others frontally; angle of less than 90° between the first and the second tooth; height of the first tooth about one half of the second, height of other teeth progressively decreasing until sixth, which is about one tenth of second; spacing between first and second tooth larger than that between other teeth, maximum width at level of fourth tooth; frontal process surrounded medially and basally by long yellow hair-like setae with brown apex; vertex covered by long yellow hair-like setae with brown apex; compound eye large, globular. Thorax, tegula and collar covered in dense, very long light brown hair-like setae; abdomen orange brown dorsally and covered with short hair-like-setaes, yellowish with longer hair-like setae laterally and ventrally; eighth and ninth tergites covered with dense pack of scales, partially covered by long hair-like setae. Scales elongated, maximum width at apex, 2.1 times longer than wide, light brown in apical fifth. Forewing long, broad triangular, costal and ventral margin straight, outer margin evenly arcuate, tornal angle broad, apex narrowly rounded. Forewing ground colour pale light brown, costal margin yellowish for two-thirds from the base; basal line faint, ante-median line visible in the upper half and faint in the lower half, post-median line extended from costal to ventral margin, more distinct in the upper half, discal spot well defined, c-shaped, brown, terminal line distinct and brown. Hindwing off-white, with yellowish venation; discal spot faint; terminal line present with a clear anal spot. Underside of forewing as the upperside but generally less distinct; underside of hindwing homogenous whitish as upperside but with darker shade, discal spot present but faint.

Barcode sequence.

GenBank MW756090, BOLD ID GBMNF23029-22, see Table S1b.

Distribution.

Known from Northern Africa to southern Europe and western Asia (western Turkey)

Material examined.

Type material: Adult ♀. Label : Italy, Val Venosta, Silandro, 20/06/2022 . - Other material: Other individuals (3 ♀, 1 ♂) from the same locality present another haplotype MW756096 (label data: Italy, Val Venosta, Silandro, 30/07/2014, 46°37′45″N, 10°47′55″W, 903 m, ex larva Pinus nigra , leg. A. Battisti) .

Remarks.

The type material was searched in vain at the Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria where the Schiffermüller collection was preserved. It was probably lost in the fire of the Vienna Hofburg on 31 October 1848 during the Vienna Uprising or October Revolution (personal communication of Sabine Gaal-Haszler, curator of the Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria).