Taxonomic changes

Published in the January/February 2021 issue of the Entomologist's Record & Journal of Variation (Volume 133 Part 1) was the fourth update to the Checklist of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles, 2013.  Known as the ABH checklist and aligned with taxonomy in Europe, this has now been widely accepted as the definitive list of British moth species, replacing the earlier one by Bradley & Fletcher.  Unfortunately those European taxonomists keep changing their minds...

For those who are interested in these matters, the main changes in this 4th update appear to be as follows:

  4.064  Trifurcula headleyella becomes Glaucolepis headleyella

  4.074  Ectoedemia sericopeza becomes Etainia sericopeza

  4.075  Ectoedemia louisella becomes Etainia louisella

  4.076  Ectoedemia decentella becomes Etainia decentella

  4.077  Ectoedemia weaveri becomes Fomoria weaveri

  4.078  Ectoedemia septembrella becomes Fomoria septembrella

  4.079  Ectoedemia atrifrontella becomes Zimmermannia atrifrontella

  4.080  Ectoedemia longicaudella becomes Zimmermannia longicaudella

  4.081  Ectoedemia amani becomes Zimmermannia amani

35.145  Teleiodes sequax becomes Neotelphusa sequax

49.133  Cochylis nana becomes Thyraylia nana

49.136  Cochylis hybridella becomes Neocochylis hybridella

49.137  Cochylis dubitana becomes Neocochylis dubitana

49.138  Cochylis molliculana becomes Neocochylis molliculana

49.139  Cochylis atricapitana becomes Cochylichroa atricapitana

49.140  Cochylis pallidana becomes Brevicornutia pallidana

62.013  Moitrelia obductella becomes Uncinus obductella  

Those with long memories (or a copy of MoGBI Vol.1 from 1983) will recall that we've been here before with Etainia and Fomoria!  Unfortunately most of the above changes affect species which can be found in our area so I suppose we'll have to get used to them.  The change to Ectoedemia longicaudella is especially important to us because as far as I'm aware this species, which was added to the British list by Peter Hall in 2009, is still only known from Bernwood Forest.

Species added to the main check-list in this update are as follows:

15.0715  Phyllonorycter medicaginella (Gerasimov, 1930)

62.0382  Acrobasis fallouella (Ragonot, 1871)

70.1698  Eupithecia breviculata (Donzel, 1837)                   Rusty-shouldered Pug

72.089    Grammodes bifasciata (Petagna, 1786)                Parallel Lines

Finally, there has been a change to a change:  Archiearis notha Light Orange Underwing became 70.204 Boudinotiana notha in the original 2013 checklist but has now reverted to Archiearis notha.

Earlier updates to the ABH checklist were published in Ent Rec as follows:  checklist corrigenda Jan/Feb 2016 (Volume 128 part 1), 1st update Mar/Apr 2016 (Volume 128 part 2), 2nd update Jan/Feb 2019 (Volume 131 part 1) and 3rd update Jan/Feb 2020 (Volume 132 part 1).