Phycita

''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

Species of ''Phycita'' include:

* ''Phycita aceris'' Schernijazova, 1974
* ''Phycita amygdali'' Schernijazova, 1974
* ''Phycita arabica'' Asselbergs, 2008
* '' Phycita caiella'' de Joannis, 1913
* ''Phycita characterica'' Asselbergs, 2009
* ''Phycita clientella'' Zeller, 1867
* ''Phycita coronatella'' (Guenée, 1845)
* ''Phycita demidovi'' Guillermet, 2007
* '' Phycita diaphana'' (Staudinger, 1870)
* ''Phycita eulepidella'' Hampson, 1896
* ''Phycita fuscopilella'' Chrétien
* ''Phycita hyssarica'' Schernijazova, 1974
* ''Phycita macrodontella'' (Ragonot, 1887)
* ''Phycita meliella''
* ''Phycita metzneri'' (Zeller, 1846)
* ''Phycita nephodeella'' Ragonot, 1887
* ''Phycita orthoclina'' (Meyrick, 1929)
* ''Phycita pectinicornella'' Fryer, 1912
* ''Phycita pedisignella'' Ragonot, 1887
* ''Phycita poteriella'' (Zeller, 1846)
* ''Phycita rhapta'' (Turner, 1947)
* '' Phycita roborella'' (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775)
* ''Phycita strigata'' (Staudinger, 1879)
* ''Phycita torrenti'' Agenjo, 1962
* ''Phycita trachystola'' Turner, 1904
* '' Phycita venalbellus'' (de Joannis, 1922)

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
&ndash
''Phycita''
Version of 5 November 2004. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
* (2011): Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms'' &ndash

Version of 6 March 2011. Retrieved 27 May 2011.

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7188407

Phycitini
Pyralidae genera