Species Strepsicrates smithiana - Bayberry Leaftier Moth - Hodges#2907

2907

Smith's Strepsicrates Moth

Strepsicrates smithiana Walsingham, 1891(1)

Phthinolophus indentanus Dyar, 1903(2)

Spilonota imminens Meyrick, 1917

Phylogenetic sequence #620737

Records from the eastern third of the United States, most in the southeast. (3)

Type Locality: West Indies

Recorded late May to early October on Block Island, RI; probably bivoltine there.(4)

In our area larvae are leaf tiers of wax myrtle (Morella cerifera), bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica), and Eugenia. (5)

There has been confusion in the synonymy of this moth and it derives from an historical taxonomic quirk: Walsingham described a new Tortricid from the West Indies, Strepsicrates smithiana, in 1891 in the Trans. Ent. Soc. of London (p. 506)(1). Then in 1895, he described a different, snowy white Tortricid from Loveland, CO, as “Paedisca smithiana”, publishing that description in the Proc. Zool. Soc. of London on p. 506 of that journal (note the page number!)(6). This was an unfortunate double coincidence of specific epithets and page numbers for two different moths. Later Dyar described what he thought was a new bayberry eating moth as “Phthinolophus indentanus” and mentions that specimens raised on wax myrtle were "submitted to Lord Walsingham in 1884 and labelled 'Paedisca n. sp.'"(2). That certainly added to the name confusion. Dyar's moth turned out to be the first of Walsingham's two "smithiana's", not the one in the genus Paedisca. The correct association of references is as follows:

Strepsicrates smithiana Walsingham 1891, Proc. Zool. Soc. of London 1891:506.

Paedisca smithiana Walsingham 1895, Trans. Ent. Soc. of London 1895:506.

Walsingham's snowy white Colorado moth "Paedisca smithiana" refers to the moth now known as #3037 Pelochrista agricolana.

Walsingham, Lord. 1891. On the Micro-Lepidoptera of the West Indies. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1891: 506.

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