Gymnancyla gilvella

Gymnancyla gilvella (Ragonot, 1887)

(Figs 38–42)

Material examined: 2♂, 1♀, Kherson reg., Arabatska strilka, Shchaslyvtseve, saltmarsh, 27, 28.vi.2013 (O. Bidzilya), genitalia slide: V. Yepishin prep. no. 066.18 ♂, 067.18 ♀ (ZMKU). 1♀, Kherson reg., Arabatska strilka, Shchaslyvtseve, 7–11.viii.2014 (O. Bidzilya) (ZMKU). 2♀, Kherson reg., Arabatska strilka, vic. Strilkove, salt marsh, e. l., 17–18, 20.viii.2016 (O. Bidzilya), genitalia slide: O. Bidzilya prep. no. 279 / 18♀ (ZMKU). 2 ex., Zaporizhzhia reg., Yakymivka distr., Fedotova spit, 10.vii.2018 (V. Mushynskyi) (VM). 1 ex., Zaporizhzhia reg., Yakymivka distr., Radyvonivka, 15.viii.2019 (V. Mushynskyi) (VM).

Distribution. Spain: Canary Islands; Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Saudi-Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Iraq, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, W China (Roesler 1993); Turkey (Koçak & Kemal 2009); Russia: Volgo-Don region, Middle- and Lower Volga and S Urals (Sinev et al. 2019); Kazakhstan (Anikin et al. 2017); first records for Ukraine: Kherson & Zaporizhzhia regions.

Biology. In Ukraine most of specimens were collected on the saline marshes on the coast of the Sea of Azov (Fig. 42). Larvae were found living in silken tubes among branches of Salicornia perenanns Willd. in August. Pupation takes place under the larval shelter. Adults occur from June to September in two generations. One specimen has been collected on the steppe slopes near the Tashchenak River.

Remarks. Roesler (1993: 107) placed Gymnancyla gilvella in the genus Bazaria Ragonot, 1887. The latter was recently synonymized with Gymnancyla Zeller, 1848 by Leraut (2014: 278). However, this synonymy is not generally accepted. Depending on the authors Bazaria is treated a separate genus (Sinev et al. 2019: 173) or subgenus of Gymnancyla (Vives Moreno 2014). Tinea canella Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775 (type species of the genus Gymnancyla) and Bazaria turensis Ragonot, 1887 (type species of the genus Bazaria) have similar genitalia of both sexes. The observed differences in wing venation and frontal part of the head among species currently associated with Bazaria and Gymnancyla do not seem us reliable characters to consider Bazaria as a separate genus. The variation in external characters (absence/presence of a frontal process on the head; thorax covered with usual scales or modified hair-like scales; shape of labial palpus and others) are rather common within some genera from other Lepidoptera families (e.g. Ornativalva Gozmány, 1955, Caulastrocecis Chrétien, 1931, Athrips Billberg, 1820, Dichomeris Hübner, 1818 in Gelechiidae) regarding the naturalness of which there is no doubt (Sattler 1976; Hodges 1986; Bidzilya 2005). Due to great variability in wing venation and head modifications the current diagnoses of Gymnancyla sensu lato and related genera (Prorophora Ragonot, 1887 and Christophia Ragonot, 1887) are rather unclear, which greatly complicates the generic placement of some species (Tsvetkov 2019: 344). Hence, we followed Leraut’s opinion treating Bazaria as synonym of Gymnancyla until the global revision of these and related genera is provided.