Phycita is a genus of small moths belonging to the snout moth family (Pyralidae). They are the type genus of their tribe Phycitini and of the huge snout moth subfamily Phycitinae.
The type species of this widespread genus is Phycita roborella, under its obsolete name Tinea spissicella. This is believed by many authors to have been described in Johan Christian Fabricius' Entomologia systematica in the 1790s. However, it appears that Fabricius described the species in his 1776/1777 Genera insectorum already. Fabricius himself established the present genus under the name Phycis.
But this name had already been used for a genus of northern hakes by Peter Artedi in his catalogue of fishes (Petri Artedi sueci genera piscium), edited and published posthumously by Johann Julius Walbaum in 1792. When this name was replaced, Fabricius' earlier description of the type species was overlooked, eventually rendering it a nomen oblitum. In any case, the same moth had been first described as Phalaena (Tinea) roborella by Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775, and thus their species name has priority over that of Fabricius. Replacement names for Fabricius' Phycis were proposed at almost the same time in 1828 by John Curtis and Ludwig Thienemann, but the latter's proposal Ceratium was also unavailable, having been established for a dinoflagellate genus by Franz von Paula Schrank in 1793. To add further confusion, some authors have claimed that Ceratium was again established for the present genus in 1848 by Johannes von Nepomuk Franz Xaver Gistel, but this is not correct – Gistel merely discussed Thienemann's and v. Schrank's names and (unnecessarily) proposed Gyra to replace the latter, adding yet another invalid name to the synonymy of Phycita.
Phycita species can be hard to tell apart from related moths in the field. The combination of 11 veins in the forewing (vein 7 missing altogether) and an upward-pointing "snout" formed by the long and straight labial palps, whose second segment is much longer than the third, may be diagnostic. The caterpillar's food plants are not comprehensively documented, but seem to include trees of the eurosids I clade and perhaps others.Clarke (1986), and see references in Savela (2011)
Selected species These 72 species belong to the genus Phycita:
Phycita acericola Kuznetzov, 1960 Phycita aceris Schernijazova, 1974 Phycita adiacritis Turner, 1904 Phycita amygdali Schernijazova, 1974 Phycita ardekanella Amsel, 1950 Phycita ardentia Hampson, 1903 Phycita asseclella Ragonot, 1893 Phycita asselbergsi Slamka, 2019 Phycita attenuata Balinsky, 1994 Phycita balutchistanella Amsel, 1950 Phycita basistrigata Amsel, 1935 Phycita caiella Joannis, 1913 Phycita cavifrons Meyrick, 1932 Phycita characterica Asselbergs, 2009 Phycita clientella (Zeller, 1867) Phycita clientulella Ragonot, 1893 Phycita coronatella (Guenée, 1845) Phycita definalis Hampson, 1908 Phycita demidovi Guillermet, 2007 Phycita deodaralis Hampson, 1908 Phycita diaphana (Staudinger, 1870) Phycita dinawa Kenrick, 1907 Phycita endomelaena Hampson, 1908 Phycita eremica Amsel, 1935 Phycita erythrolophia Hampson, 1903 Phycita exaggerata Balinsky, 1994 Phycita hemipexella Hampson, 1903 Phycita hemixanthella Hampson, 1896 Phycita hyrcanella Amsel, 1961 Phycita hyssarica Schernijazova, 1974 Phycita inanitella (Ragonot, 1888) Phycita judaica Amsel, 1935 Phycita kurdistanella Amsel, 1954 Phycita lugubris Balinsky, 1994 Phycita luxorella Caradja, 1916 Phycita melanosticta Hampson, 1912 Phycita meliella (Mann, 1864) Phycita melongenae Aina, 1983 Phycita mianella Amsel, 1950 Phycita michaeli Roesler & Küppers, 1979 Phycita nagaradja Roesler & Küppers, 1979 Phycita nephodeella Ragonot, 1887 Phycita ochralis Hampson, 1903 Phycita orthoclina Meyrick, 1929 Phycita pachylepidella Hampson, 1896 Phycita pectenella Hampson, 1896 Phycita pectinicornella Fryer, 1912 Phycita pedisignella Ragonot, 1887 Phycita peliella Yamanaka, 2016 Phycita persarum (Toll, 1948) Phycita phaeella Hampson, 1903 Phycita phoenicocraspis Hampson, 1896 Phycita phryne G. Leraut, 2019 Phycita pirizanella Amsel, 1954 Phycita poteriella (Zeller, 1846) Phycita randensis Balinsky, 1994 Phycita rectella (Guenée, 1845) Phycita roborella (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775) Phycita salitella Zerny, 1935 Phycita spiculata Balinsky, 1994 Phycita spissoterminata Balinsky, 1994 Phycita steniella Hampson, 1903 Phycita strigata (Staudinger, 1879) Phycita subdeletella (Ragonot, 1893) Phycita subsalitella G. Leraut, 2019 Phycita suppenditata Balinsky, 1994 Phycita taftanella Amsel, 1950 Phycita teheranella Amsel, 1954 Phycita torrenti Agenjo, 1962 Phycita trachystola Turner, 1904 Phycita vayu Roesler & Küppers, 1979 Phycita venalbellus (Joannis, 1927) Phycita zizyphella Chrétien, 1915
Footnotes
References
(1986): Pyralidae and Microlepidoptera of the Marquesas Archipelago . Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 416: 1-485. PDF (214 MB!) (2004): Butterflies and Moths of the World, Generic Names and their Type-species – Phycita. Version of 5 November 2004. Retrieved 27 May 2011. (2011): Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms – Phycita. Version of 6 March 2011. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
External links