Variation in male genitalia of <i>Coleophora vacciniella</i> H.-S. (Lepidoptera, Coleophoridae)

Abstract

We studied 105 genitalia of mostly Finnish male Coleophora vacciniella Herrich-Schäffer, 1861, in order to inspect the variation in certain features: the number of chitinous teeth on the dorsal side of the phallotheca, the number of spines at the distal end of it, and the number of cornuti in the vesica. All of the parameters were close to a normal distribution, which did not coincide with our original idea of splitting this species complex into two or even more species. On the contrary, we had to synonymise C. betulaenanae Klimesh, 1958, with C. vacciniella, as we could not find reasonable differences between them.

The ecology and biology of <i>Coleophora boreella</i> Benander, 1939 (Lepidoptera: Coleophoridae)

“…One must, however, bear in mind that the variation in genitalia may be extensive both locally and geographically (e.g. Itämies & Tabell 1997) and that minor differences between geographically separate (allopatric) populations do not mean that they belong to different species in the sense of the biological species concept. The outer appearance and the size of the specimens also show remarkable variation.…”