Greater Wax Moth group - Galleria mellonella & new cryptic sp
Galleria mellonella has been found to comprise at least 3 cryptic species, with one newly described species from Korea, also confirmed from Hong Kong (and this is likely to be widepread in East Asia (see below) - though mellonella still occurs in Korea, so this is a case of genitalia dissections being needed to confirm identificaitons), and a further undescribed species from Australia.
https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/54960/
On BOLD, there are two BINs (Barcode Identification Number) under Galleria mellonella - true mellonella is BOLD:AAA0965 [Members: 143] and G. similis (BOLD:ABA6806 [Members: 16], with similis recorded in: South Korea, Thailand, China, India, Bhutan and Papua New Guinea.
From Soh et al (2020)
Diagnosis
Galleria similis sp. nov. is very similar to G. mellonella but can be distinguished by a square discal cell of its hindwing venation and the different shape of male genitalia - G. similis: valva shorter and wider, concave at outer margin. Galleria similis sp. nov. had 15, one and four diagnostic characters from 658 bp of partial COI, 613 bp of partial CAD and 423 bp of partial wg gene region, respectively. Our study showed that morphological and molecular characters can be used to resolve the status of cryptic species, G. mellonella and G. similis. A cryptic species was suggested by the unusually high genetic distances within specimens originally identified as G. mellonella.
You have been warned!!
