Gorbunov O.G. 2024. A new species of the genus Bembecia Hübner, 1819 (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) from the Volga region // Russian Entomol. J. Vol.33. No.3: 387–396 [in English].
A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky prospekt 33, Moscow 119071 Russia.
Oleg Gorbunov: gorbunov.oleg@mail.ru ORCID 0000-0001-5706-621X
doi: 10.15298/rusentj.33.3.11
ABSTRACT. A new species, Bembecia (Opacosphecia) eversmanni O. Gorbunov, sp.n. from the Volga region in the European part of the Russian Federation, is described. This new species is very close to B. (Opacosphecia) puella Z. Laštůvka, 1989, and B. (Opacosphecia) megillaeformis (Hübner, 1813), but is distinguished by a noticeably paler coloration and smaller size. In addition, the new species is clearly distinguished from B. (Opacosphecia) megillaeformis by the structure and coloration of the apical area of the forewing. Larvae of the new species are oligophagous on several species of the genus Astragalus (Fabaceae). It is shown that neither the common host plant of the larvae nor external morphology can serve as reliable characters determining the generic affiliation of a taxon in such a complex group as the mimetic family Sesiidae. It is obvious that one of the most important features of generic taxonomy should be considered the morphological structure of the genitalia of both males and females, although sometimes there are incidents, such as with the description in the genus Synanthedon of the species rubrocingulata, which is a representative of the genus Bembecia, Bembecia rubrocingulata (Toševski, 2011), comb.n.
KEY WORDS. Sesiidae, Synanthedonini, clearwing moths, new species, Palaearctic Region, Russia.