Carolinea 78

138 Carolinea 78 (2020) The Gelechiidae of his collection comprises ma- terial from the Middle East including a number of type specimens of taxa described by A msel in his faunistic and systematic papers on Gelechii- dae from Palestine. It also includes rather exten- sive material including several type specimens of taxa described based on material collected in Sardinia: Epidola grisea A msel , 1942, E. nurag- hella H artig , 1939, Metzneria santolinella ( A m - sel , 1936), Neofaculta ericitella tenalella ( A msel , 1938), Malta: Epidola melitensis A msel , 1955, and Northern Germany: Neofaculta ericitella at- lanticella ( A msel , 1938). This collection was later considerably supplemented by very rich material collected by A msel himself and other collectors in Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the Alps and other regions of Europe and Asia. Later, the SMNK-collection was greatly extended by the incorporation of the extraordinary species- and specimen-rich collections of K arl B urmann , W olfgang G laser , and R einhard S utter ( E-Lep. 205 ). These collections could be obtained for the SMNK thanks to the managerial skills and per- sonal efforts of both, the curators of Lepidoptera and directors of SMNK. The collection of the well-known Austrian lepidop­ terist K arl B urmann was acquired by the SMNK in 1968. This acquisition can hardly be overesti- mated, because the collection comprises exten- sive material from Austrian Tyrol documenting the Alpine fauna of this region. The collection is of excellent quality and contains types of several species, e.g. Sattleria dzieduszyckii fusca B ur - mann , 1954 or Anarsia burmanni A msel , 1958, a subjective synonym of Anarsia bilbainella (R öss - ler , 1877). Moreover, the collection includes ma- terial collected by W. G laser in Spain and Turkey including many type specimens of Gnorimosche- mini described by D alibor P ovolný : Scrobipalpa bryophiloides P ovolný , 1966, S. occulta ( P o - volný , 2002), S. anatolica P ovolný , 1973, S. che- titica P ovolný , 1974, Turkopalpa glaseri P ovolný , 1973, and others. Until 2019 most other specimens of Gelechiidae from the collection of W olfgang G laser were kept unsorted among other Microlepidoptera collected by W. G laser himself or with the help of his wife and field collaborator M argit in Austria, Spain, Crete, Turkey and Tunisia (“Mauritania, Tunisia- Süd”) (Fig.1). Apart from the large number of in- dividual specimens, the G laser ’ s collection con- tains valuable data on larval host plants. For some species, e.g. Caulastrocecis cryptoxena ( G ozmány , 1952) , several species of Scrobipalpa and others it is the only source of biological information. Since 2020, this material is incorporated into the main collection of Gelechiidae, along with thousands of previously unidentified specimens collected by H. A msel , G. E bert , E. D iehl , J. K lapperich (E- Lep . 20, 21, 79) , R. P inker ( E-Lep. 17 , 19) , W. B ender ( E- Lep. 32 , 33, 197) , U. R oesler (E- Lep . 46, 52, 102, 124, 145, 156), F. H ahn (E- Lep. 283) , and other collectors in Spain (including the Canary Islands), the Balkan peninsula, Central Asia (Iran, Afgha- nistan, Pakistan), Turkey, Middle East (Jordan, Saudi Arabia), and Northern Africa (Tunisia, Mo- rocco). Most of them are now identified to species level, though a number of specimens from unrevi- sed groups are arranged by morphotypes awaiting further study. Recently the Gelechiidae at the SMNK were supplemented by specimens from the collection of R einhard S utter . Most of them are of outstan- ding quality, being excellently labeled and prepa- red (Fig. 2). This collection comprises many in- Figure 1. A series of Sclerocecis pulverosella C hrétien , 1908 from Tunisia. – All photos: O leksiy V. B idzilya .