A new species of Pharmacis Hübner, 1820 from Spain with a brief review of the genera Pharmacis and Korscheltellus Börner, 1920 (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae)

Abstract

We here describe a new ghost moth (Hepialidae) species, Pharmacis cantabricus sp. n. from the Picos de Europa National Park, Cantabria, in northern Spain. The new species belongs to a group of mostly day-flying species that are restricted to the European Alps and some mountain ranges of southern Europe. Based on morphology and analysis of mitochondrial COI gene sequences, the new species is closely related to Pharmacis aemilianus (Constantini, 1911), an endemic of the Italian Apennines. However, Pharmacis cantabricus sp. n. can easily be distinguished from all related species based on both external and genitalic characters. We briefly review and illustrate all species of the genus Pharmacis Hübner, 1820 and discuss its relationship with the related genus Korscheltellus Börner, 1920. We reinstate Hepialus castillanus Oberthür, 1883 as a distinct species and transfer it to Korscheltellus (stat. rev., comb. n.).