Epinotia cinereana Haworth 1811
Creators: name: Mutanen, Marko
name: Aarvik, Leif
name: Landry, Jean-François
name: Segerer, Andreas H.
name: Karsholt, Ole
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Tortricidae
Epinotia
Epinotia cinereana

description: Epinotia cinereana (Haworth, 1811)
Figures 2 A–2B, 3A–3J, 5A–5C, 6A–6C, 7A–7C, 8A–8C
Tortrix cinereana Haworth, 1811: 451. TL: Great Britain.
Tortrix petrana Hübner, 1813: pl. 33, fig. 210. Revised synonymy.
Steganoptycha cinerana Stephens, 1829: 177. Misspelling.
Proteopteryx criddleana Kearfott, 1907: 58. TL: Canada, Manitoba: Aweme (AMNH, examined). New synonymy.
Diagnosis. The forewing pattern of the nominal subspecies of E. cinereana (Figs. 2 A–2B) consists of white and blackish spots and striae which together give a grey impression. In fresh specimens the light elements have a yellowish tinge and the dark ones slightly bluish. Often the light colour forms a broad, irregular band along dorsum from base to tornus. The reddish or black dorsal blotch that is present in most specimens of E. nisella is absent in E. cinereana.
The North American specimens (Figs. 3 A–3J) appear more variable than European specimens. They may have the forewing suffused with reddish, particularly along dorsum. The sub-basal and basal fasciae form a compact dark blotch, which may reach dorsum. In European specimens only the sub-basal fascia is distinct. Wingspan: North American specimens: 14.7–18.7 mm, mean = 17.0 mm (N = 31); European specimens: 14.0–18.0 mm.
Male genitalia (Figs. 5 A–5C, 6A–6C). The valva is slightly (about 15%) narrower than in E. nisella. This is difficult to see unless a series of preparations are compared. The number of cornuti in the phallus is 13–20 versus 40–50 in E. nisella. Tergite VIII is distinctly narrower medially in E. cinereana than in E. nisella. The lateral processes anteriorly on sternite VIII are broader and more curved in E. cinereana than in E. nisella. In E. nisella the processes are relatively narrow and pointing straight to the side. The medial “stem” of the sternite is much narrower in E. cinereana than in E. nisella.
Female genitalia (Figs. 7 A–7C, 8A–8C). The sterigma is cylindrical with strongly sclerotised lateral edges and large triangular processes. The signa are much larger in E. cinereana than in E. nisella, their surface area totalling on average more than 2.75% of the surface area of the flattened bursa.
Life history. The larva is described as pale yellowish-green, with a dark green irregular dorsal vessel, spots invisible, and hairs very delicate; head chestnut-brown, with darker eyes and jaws, prothoracic shield faintly tinged with brown, anal plate hardly distinguishable. It lives between leaves of Populus tremula, which it ties flatly together, without roll or fold, eating away the parenchyma (Barrett 1882).
MacKay (1965) described and illustrated in detail the larva of North American specimens. According to her, the larva can be distinguished from that of E. nisella and other Epinotia species by the short D1 setae on the anal shield (long in E. nisella), the presence of three SV setae on A2 (two in E. nisella) and higher number of crochets (40 on ventral proleg, 30 on anal proleg; vs 25 and 18–19 respectively for E. nisella); it is also generally paler with a yellowish head and pale body (in E. nisella, head yellowish brown, thoracic shield yellowish brown or brown). In North America, E. cinereana is recorded primarily from Populus tremuloides, but there are also less frequent reports on P. balsamifera, P. trichocarpa, Salix and Quercus macrocarpa (Prentice 1965, Miller 1986). The Quercus records seem dubious and we have been unable to locate reared adult vouchers to verify them. It is possible that they represent misidentifications of oak-feeding Pseudexentera species: Pseudexentera larvae have been confused with Epinotia larvae previously (Mackay 1957, Kusch 1967). The larvae feed primarily on catkins of P. tre m u - loides but have also been reported to bore into branchlets of P. balsamifera (Miller 1986).
Distribution. Widely distributed in northern Europe with confirmed records from Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. In Central Europe known from Germany, most probaly also occurring in adjacent countries. Scattered records throughout Russia from the St. Petersburg region to south-eastern Siberia, including the Ural and the Altai Mountains (Sinev & Nedoshivina 2009); Japan (Oku 2004). Probably also in China (Liu 1981: fig. 242 middle). In North America, E. cinereana ranges from Quebec and New Brunswick to British Columbia in Canada, northward into the boreal zone, and south in the United States to Iowa and Colorado (Gilligan et al. 2008 for US distribution).
Remarks on type material. Tortrix cinereana was described from an unstated number of specimens (“ infrequentissime ”) found on lichen-covered tree trunks in forest(s) in Great Britain (Haworth 1811). The type is probably lost (K. Tuck, in litt.). We base the identity of T. cinereana on Pierce & Metcalfe’s (1922) work. They documented the differences in the genitalia between E. nisella and E. cinereana, and we consider them as first revisers.
Tortrix petrana is based on the figure under this name in the work of Hübner (1799–1833). The number of specimens and type locality are not stated, although the latter is probably southern Germany. The type is probably lost. Tortrix petrana was hitherto considered a synonym of E. nisella.
Proteopteryx criddleana was described from 17 specimens including both males and females collected in Aweme, Manitoba on July 24, 1904 (Kearfott 1907). A lectotype 3 in AMNH is here designated. It is labelled: “Criddle | Aweme | Man. | 24.vii.04 ” [printed with date handwritten]; “ Proteopteryx | criddleana | Cotype Kearfott.” [handwritten; “Kearfott Col. | Ac. 4667” [printed]; “COTYPE | No. | A.M.N.H.” [red, printed]; “Needs | LECTOTYPE ” [pale blue, half printed, half handwritten]; “genitalia slide | JFL 17073” [pale green, printed with male symbol handwritten]; “ LECTOTYPE 3 | Proteopteryx | criddleana | Kearfott | by J.-F. Landry 2011” [orange, part printed, part handwritten]. One paralectotype male in CNC, with same collecting date as lectotype. Abdomen missing.
Steganoptycha cinerana (Stephens 1829) is a misspelling of Tortrix cinereana Haworth.
Other remarks. Dombroskie also communicated the following: ”I have collected E. nisella from across the boreal in Canada, and the only place I have encountered E. criddleana is in Alberta. I find the two species in roughly equal abundance in the boreal and wooded areas in the prairies, but in one site in the mountains (Kootenay Plains), the latter species is by far the most common (I have got well over 200 specimens in a night)” (email of 1 Dec 2011 to JFL, with permission to cite).
description: Published as part of Mutanen, Marko, Aarvik, Leif, Landry, Jean-François, Segerer, Andreas H. & Karsholt, Ole, 2012, Epinotia cinereana (Haworth, 1811) bona sp., a Holarctic tortricid distinct from E. nisella (Clerck, 1759) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Eucosmini) as evidenced by DNA barcodes, morphology and life history, pp. 1-25 in Zootaxa 3318 on pages 5-6, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.211502