Pempeliella bulgarica Slamka & Plant, 2016

Yepishin, Viktor, Bidzilya, Oleksiy, Budashkin, Yuriy, Zhakov, Oleksandr, Mushynskyi, Vadym & Novytskyi, Sergiy, 2020, New records of little known pyraloid moths (Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea) from Ukraine, Zootaxa 4808 (1), pp. 101-120 : 116

Pempeliella bulgarica Slamka & Plant, 2016

Material examined: 1♂, Crimea, Karadah , biostation, at light, 21.vii.1987 (Yu. Budashkin) . 1♂, Crimea, Karadah , 20.vii.2004 (Yu. Budashkin) ( ZMKU) . 1♂, Crimea, Karadah , at light, 13.vii.2011 (O. Bidzilya), genitalia slide: O. Bidzilya prep. no. 266 / 18♂ ( ZMKU) . 1♂, Crimea, Karadah , at light, 15.vi.2013 (Yu. Budashkin), genitalia slide: V. Yepishin prep. no. 103.19 ♂ ( ZMKU) . 1♂, 1♀, Crimea, Uzun-Syrt , e. l., 7, 17.vi.2014 (Yu. Budashkin), genitalia slide: V. Yepishin prep. no. 102.19 ♂, 104.19 ♀ ( ZMKU) .

Distribution. Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Albania, Turkey ( Slamka 2019); Russia: S Urals, Volgograd and Voronezh regions ( Slamka 2019), Middle Urals (Sinev et al. 2019); Ukraine: Kharkiv region (Karolinskiy 2018; Karolinskiy et al. 2018), first record for Crimea.

Biology. About ten last instar and immature larvae were collected 10.v.2014 feeding on Thymus tauricus Klok. & Shost. in the mountain-xerophytic habitats of the southern slope of Uzun-Syrt hill. The life style of the larvae was studied in the laboratory. Larvae live singly in tight brown silken tubes, covered with frass and dry parts of plants that fixed firmly to the stem of the host plant. Larva feeds on green leaves, leaving the shelter. Pupation occurs without diapause on the host plant in the last ten days of May, adults emerged 7.vi (four males, one female), 17.vi (one female) and 19.vi.2014. The reared specimens, along with others collected at light in the Karadah Nature Reserve were misidentified as Pempeliella sororiella ( Zeller, 1839) ( Budashkin 2004, 2014b). The latter species must be removed from the list of Pyralidae of Ukraine due to its current re-identification as P. bulgarica .