ALBERTA LEPIDOPTERISTS’ GUILD NEWSLETTER SPRING 2017 Welcome to the ALG Newsletter, a compendium of news, reports, and items of interest related to lepidopterans and lepidopterists in Alberta. The newsletter is produced twice per year, in spring and fall, edited by John Acorn. Actias luna, Emily Gorda, June 5, 2017, Cold Lake, Alberta Contents: Pohl and Macaulay: Additions and Corrections to the Alberta Lep. List.........................................2 Macnaughton: The Prairie Province Butter>ly Atlas................................................................................5 Pang: Song for a Painted Lady..........................................................................................................................14 Romanyshyn: Quest for Euchloe creusa......................................................................................................15 Bird: Dry Island Butter>ly Count.....................................................................................................................16 Letters to ALG..........................................................................................................................................................19 Acorn: From the Editor, and Butter>ly Roundup Update.....................................................................23 ALG Newsletter Spring 2017– Page 1 Additions to the Alberta Lepidoptera List, and Corrections to the 2016 Update Greg Pohl and Doug Macaulay This note is both an update to the provincial checklist, and a corrigendum to the 2016 update (Pohl & Macaulay 2016), which contained some errors, and the end of the article was accidentally omitted. Tischeriidae 33.5 Astrotischeria solidagonifoliella (Clemens, 1859). Correction. The report by Pohl & Macaulay (2016) was a misidenti>ication; this species is not known from AB. It is added to the Erroneous species list at #E000.1. 34.1 Astrotischeria occidentalis (Braun, 1972). New record. Specimens were reared from Solidago, collected at Waterton Lakes National Park in 2012 by GRP. Thanks to Charley Eiseman and Terry Harrison for con>irming this identi>ication. Momphidae 224.1 Mompha brevivittella (Clemens). New record. A series of reared specimens were collected in Edmonton in 2015 by Adrian Jones, and brought to GRP's attention by Colleen Raymond. They were reared from seed pods of Evening Primrose (Oenothera sp.). This species was previously known from eastern Canada as far west as MB. This species, and Adrian and Colleen, are the winners of the ALG's Wolley Dod Discovery Award in 2016, recognising new AB Lepidoptera discoveries. These specimens were originally identiied in Pohl & Macaulay (2016), as Astrotischeria solidagonifoliella (Clemens), but that was erroneous, as pointed out by Charley Eiseman. Mompha brevivittella photo by GRP ALG Newsletter Spring 2017– Page 2 Tortricidae 595.01 Ancylis <loridana (Zeller, 1875). Correction. This was incorrectly reported by Pohl & Macaulay (2016) as the valid name for records previously listed in North America as A. comptana (Frölich). That is incorrect. Ancylis comptana is reinstated at #595. Ancylis <loridana is a synonym of A. comptana. Noctuidae 2149.1 Lacinipolia acutipennis (Grote, 1880). New record. In Schmidt's (2015) revision of the Lacinipolia vicina species group, he reinstated L. acutipennis as a valid species, for grassland populations (including some in AB) previously identi>ied as L. pensilis. True L. pensilis (#2149) also occurs in AB, in the Rocky Mountains. 2149.2 Lacinipolia sareta (Smith, 1906). New status. Lacinipolia vicina Grote (#2148) was historically reported across Canada, including AB. However, when Schmidt (2015) revised the vicina species group, he determined that most AB populations previously identi>ied as L. vicina are in fact L. sareta. True L. vicina does not occur in AB; it is restricted to eastern NA. It should be added to the Erroneous Species List at #E153.1. References (note this includes references that were inadvertently omitted from Pohl & Macaulay 2016): Bowman K (1951) An annotated list of the Lepidoptera of Alberta. Canadian Journal of Zoology 29: 121–165. Doganlar M, Beirne BP (1978) Fruit tree leafrollers (Lepidoptera) and parasites (Hymenoptera) introduced in the Vancouver District, British Columbia. Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia 75: 23–24. Ferguson DC, Opler PA, Smith MJ (2000) Moths of western North America, 3. Distribution of Arctiidae of western North America, Part 1. Text, maps, and references. C.P. Gillette Arthropod Biodiversity Museum, Ft. Collins, CO, 171 pp. Gilligan TM, Baixeras J, Brown JW, Tuck KR (2014) T@RTS: Online World Catalogue of the Tortricidae (Ver. 3.0). http://www.tortricid.net/ catalogue.asp Gilligan T, Huemer P, Wiesmair B (2016) Different continents, same species? Resolving the taxonomy of some Holarctic Ancylis Hübner (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). Zootaxa 4178: 347-370. Karsholt O, Lvovsky AL, Nielsen C (2004) A new species of Agonopterix feeding on giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) in the Caucasus, with a ALG Newsletter Spring 2017– Page 3 discussion of the nomenclature of A. heracliana (Linnaeus) (Depressariidae). Nota Lepidopterologica 28: 177-192. Kirichenko N, Triberti P, Mutanen M, Magnoux E, Landry J-F, Lopez-Vaamonde C (2016) Systematics and biology of some species of Micrurapteryx Spuler (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae) from the Holarctic Region, with re- description of M. caraganella (Hering) from Siberia. ZooKeys 579: 99-156. Lafontaine JD, Schmidt BC (2015) Additions and corrections to the check list of the Noctuoidea (Insecta, Lepidoptera) of North America north of Mexico III. ZooKeys 527: 127-147. Munroe E, Becker VO, Shaffer JC, Shaffer M, Solis MA (1995) Pyraloidea, pp. 34-105. In: J.B. Heppner (editor). Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera. Checklist: Part 2, Volume 3. Hyblaeoidea, Pyraloidea, Tortricoidea. Scientiic Publishers, Gainesville, FL. Obraztsov NS (1963) Some North American moths of the genus Acleris (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). Proceedings of the United States National Museum 114: 213–270. Pohl GR (2014) Additions and Corrections to the Alberta Lepidoptera List, 2014. Alberta Lepidopterists’ Guild Newsletter Fall 2014: 2–10. Pohl GR, Anweiler GG, Schmidt BC, Kondla NG (2010) An annotated list of the Lepidoptera of Alberta, Canada. ZooKeys 38: 1-549. Pohl GR, Dombroskie JJ, Landry J-F, Bird CD, Nazari V (2011) Errata and irst update to the 2010 checklist of the Lepidoptera of Alberta. Alberta Lepidopterists' Guild Newsletter Spring 2011: 10-17. Pohl GR, Bird CD, Nazari V, Landry J-F (2012) 2012 update to the checklist of the Lepidoptera of Alberta. Alberta Lepidopterists' Guild Newsletter Spring 2012: 7-13. Pohl GR, Anweiler GG, Bird, CD, Landry, J-F, Macaulay, DA, Maton I, Nazari N, Scott J (2013) 2013 update to the checklist of the Lepidoptera of Alberta. Alberta Lepidopterists' Guild Newsletter Fall 2013: 15-24. Pohl, GR, Macalay, DA (2016). Additions and corrections to the Alberta Lepidoptera list, 2016. Alberta Lepidopterists' Guild Newsletter Fall 2016: 41-46. Pohl, GR, Nazari V, deWaard J, Anweiler GG (2015) Additions and corrections to the Alberta Lepidoptera list, 2015. Alberta Lepidopterists' Guild Newsletter Fall 2015: 2-11. Schmidt BC (2015) Revision of the Lacinipolia vicina (Grote) complex (Noctuidae, Noctuinae, Eriopygini). ZooKeys 527: 103-126. Scholtens BG, Solis MA (2015) Annotated check list of the Pyraloidea (Lepidoptera) of America North of Mexico. ZooKeys 535: 1-136. ALG Newsletter Spring 2017– Page 4 The Prairie Province Butterfly Atlas Alan Macnaughton ([email protected]) This article announces the launch of an online butterly atlas for the prairie provinces (www.ontarioinsects.org/prairie). While it is now based on just the 10,000 records posted on eButterly as of January 2017, the plan is to consolidate all butter>ly observation data from various sources for the three provinces. The Atlas is initially a project of volunteers with the Toronto Entomologists’ Association (TEA), using software from the Ontario Butter>ly Atlas Online (Macnaughton, 2011; Macnaughton et al., 2017), but it is expected to evolve into a partnership with the Alberta Lepidopterists’ Guild. The Atlas is expected to be of interest to local butter>ly observers and may also contribute to scienti>ic research. For example, the >light season data from the TEA’s Ontario atlas was a principal source for the azure blues research of Schmidt and Layberry (2016). Why a Separate Atlas? Websites like eButterly are great for entering butter>ly observations (and uploading the associated photos) and archiving them for future use. However, these sites may not be the best vehicles for retrieving and analyzing the data. Partly this is because different observers prefer different data-entry websites, and so no one site has all of the data for a particular location. But the bigger reason is that since every website project has limited resources ($60,000 annually for eButterly; Prudic et al., 2017), website sponsors have to make choices about the features to invest in. For example, eButterly is currently working on adding a facility in which various observers (not just the observer and the vetter) can add comments on species determinations. Thus, the new Prairie Provinces Butter>ly Atlas focuses on data output and analysis, rather than data input. The Prairie Provinces Atlas shows: for each species, maps of butter>ly records for the prairie provinces as a whole and, when the user zooms in, maps of butter>ly records for any particular