Isolated in the Pyrenees: Oxytripia orbiculosa isolata Guerrero, Grundy, Yela, Rubio & Ortiz, ssp. nov. based on biological, morphological and molecular data (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Xyleninae)

Oxytripia orbiculosa (Esper, 1800) is a noctuid with a trans-Palaearctic distribution whose presence in the Iberian Peninsula had sometimes been considered uncertain more than four decades after the initial recording of a single specimen in 1981. The discovery of a population in the Central Pyrenees, in the province of Huesca (Spain) through sampling conducted in 2023 and 2025, confirms a close ecological link with the orophilous endemism Xiphion latifolium Mill., which acts as the host plant of O. orbiculosa in high mountain meadows between 1400 and 1700 m altitude. Data on the biology of the species and its attraction to various types of artificial light are provided. Externally, the Iberian specimens differ from most populations of the rest of Europe in their somewhat larger average size and in their colour, which is notably darker, with less apparent whitish spots, markings and crosslines. However, we have not found any substantial differences in genital morphology or CO1 barcode. Interpopulation variability inferred from a molecular study using CO1 barcoding of the Eastern European populations, as well as isolation, reinforces the taxonomic identity of the Iberian population at the subspecific level. Therefore, we propose the name Oxytripia orbiculosa isolata Guerrero, Yela, Grundy, Rubio & Ortiz, 2026, ssp. nov .