Sorolopha sphaerocopa is a moth of the family Tortricidae. It was described by Edward Meyrick in 1930 as Argyroploce sphaerocopa, from a specimen collected in Tonkin (northern Vietnam). It is found in India, Thailand, Japan, China, Sumatra, western Java, the MoluccasNew records and known species of the tribe Olethreutini (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Olethreutinae) from Thong Pha Phum National Park, Thailand and Vietnam., 2009, Tortricidae from Vietnam in the collection of the Berlin Museum. 6. Olethreutinae (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) Shilap revista de Lepidopterologia 37 (145): 115-143. In Japan it has been recorded from Honshu, Kyushu and the Nansei Islands, including Yakushima and Amami Ōshima.
Taxonomy The species was originally placed in Argyroploce. It was subsequently transferred to Choganhia by Razowski in 1960 (with Argyroploce sphaerocopa serving as the type species of that genus), to Acanthothyspoda by Diakonoff in 1966, and to Eudemis (Acanthothyspoda) by Diakonoff in 1968, before being placed in its current genus, Sorolopha, by Diakonoff in 1973. Choganhia and Acanthothyspoda are now treated as synonyms of Sorolopha.
Description The wingspan is 15–16 mm for males and 16–17 mm for females.The South Asiatic Olethreutini: (Lepidoptera Tortricidae) A 2023 review of Japanese material gives a mean forewing length of 7.0 mm (range 6.3–7.6 mm, n = 27). The ground colour of the forewing is variable, ranging from brown or black to dull green, with a semicircular marking in the apical area; compared with related species the forewing is relatively narrow, and males bear scale tufts near the anal margin of the hindwings. The species is very similar to Sorolopha asymmetrana in forewing pattern and in the male genitalia, but can be separated by the shape of the ventral process of the cucullus, which is uniform in width in S. sphaerocopa but narrowed at the apex in S. asymmetrana; it is also similar to Sorolopha asphaeropa in the male genitalia, from which it is distinguished by features of the hindwing.
Biology In Honshu, adults have been recorded from May to October and are frequently collected at light traps. Larvae tie together young leaves of the host plant and feed within the resulting leaf shelters; one larva has been reared from a fungus bud gall on Machilus thunbergii.
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External links Japanese Moths