Adela orientella Staudinger, 1870

Adela orientella Staudinger, 1870 View in CoL sp. rev. (figs. 7, 8)

Adela orientella Staudinger 1870 , n° 723, pl. III, fig. 6.

Adela getica Mann, 1871 .

Material examined. 1♂, Grecia, Kreta, Melampes 1, 1 km NNE, 35°08'14"N 24°39'20"E, 275 m: 28.IV.2022, leg. Huemer P.: prep. mic. 2162 TG, RCPH GoogleMaps ; 1♀, idem, DNA barcode TMLF Lep 34745: prep. mic. 2161TG, RCPH GoogleMaps .

Supplementary material: 1 specimen, Grecia, Peloponneso, Arkadia, Dara , 21.V.1977, D. Gianasso leg. det. W. Sauter, GBRC .

Adult (n 3); head with dark labial palps with long black hair-like scales above and below, head covered with long black and yellow hair-like scales in variable percentages; black antennae with white distal tip, about twice the length of the forewings, in the female slightly longer than the forewings; brown thorax with bronze and golden reflections; legs covered with black and white scales, tarsal formula 0-2-4; forewing length 4.4–5.5 mm, brown background color with golden bronze and purple reflections, white median band orthogonal to the costa, straight, a small white spot on the costa between the median band and the tip of the wing, dark brown fringes; hindwings brown with purple reflections, brown fringes.

Genitalia ♂ ( pl. I f, g, l View PLATE I ); uncus extremity with double hump, broad and flat; tegumen well sclerotised; vinculum rounded and broad posteriorly; valves subtriangular, with rounded distal end; sclerotized transtilla with median protrusion, lateral arms approximately equal; aedeagus with truncated base, sinuous, with horns at the distal end for ¼ of the total length; juxta approximately ½ length of the aedeagus with a sagittate end pointed.

Genitalia ♀ ( pl. I h, i View PLATE I ): ovipositor with acuminate end in lateral view, bursa with signa, VII tergite and VII sternite slightly sclerotized sub-triangular.

Biology: adults are in flight in April and prefer white flowers of Leucanthemum , Bellis and Anthemis ( Bryner, 2020) .

Habitat: Mediterranean maquis.

Distribution: Greece incl. islands, Cyprus, Romania.

Diagnostic Characters: Adela paludicolella is distinguished from Adela orientella by the forewings, which have a white median band curved towards the end of the wing (fig. 3, 4, 5, 6), by the shape of the valves of the uncus and transtilla ( pl. I a, b, f, l View PLATE I ), and in the female by the absence of signa in the corpus bursa ( pl. I d, h View PLATE I ). Finally, both species clearly differ in the DNA barcodes ( Fig. 11 View FIGURE 11 ).