Photo © Mike Wall

Blastobasis maroccanella

Checklist Number
41.0041 [B&F: 0873b]

Verification
Record requires retention of specimen until confirmed, and may require dissection. Consult with CMR if unsure

Classification

Family:Blastobasidae
Subfamily:Blastobasinae
Genus:Blastobasis
Species:maroccanella
Authority:Amsel, 1952

The specimens that have been assigned to this species in England have been shown to be small, dark, indistinctly marked vittata (Dickson, Langmaid and Thirlwell, 2022: Ent. Rec. J. Var. 134: 116-120) and has now been removed from the British list.

Identified by John Langmaid from well over 100 B. adustella and ten B. vittata during the course of 2013 from his Southsea, Hampshire trap. Two, caught in July and November, proved to be B. maroccanella. The type series were bred from grapes, pea pods and decaying wood, so it is remarkably polyphagous. Known from Madeira, the Azores, Morocco, and the Iberian peninsula, and widely distributed throughout Macaronesia and the western Mediterranean. Has also been introduced to California, USA.