Adenogasteria leguminivora Davis & Vargas gen. et sp. nov. (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae): a new seed‐feeding micromoth associated with Fabaceae in Peru and Chile

Abstract

The adult, pupa, larva and biology of Adenogasteria leguminivora Davis & Vargas gen. et sp. nov. (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae: Ornixolinae) from Peru and Chile are described and illustrated. This micromoth was previously reported in the agronomic literature as a pest of Caesalpinia spinosa (Molina) (Fabaceae) in Peru, but its taxonomic status remained unknown until now. Its larvae feed on the seeds of three legume trees: Acacia macracantha, C. spinosa and Inga feuillei. Adenogasteria leguminivora superficially resembles other sympatric gracillariids but can be separated on key morphological features and host plant preferences. Eggs of A. leguminivora are laid on the fruit surface, from where the larva burrows until it reaches the cotyledons, which are mined by the two early (sap‐feeding) instars and almost completely consumed by the last three (tissue‐feeding) instars. Subsequently, the mature larva leaves the fruit and constructs an elongated silk cocoon ornamented with a few silk bubbles before pupation. A maximum likelihood analysis of DNA barcodes clustered the A. leguminivora sequences as a single independent phylogenetic unit within Ornixolinae, sister to the Chileoptilia + Philodoria clade, regardless of the host plant and geographic origin of the samples. The genetic divergence of A. leguminivora to the nearest neighbour in COI barcodes was >10%.

Phyllocnistis furcata sp. nov.: a new species of leaf-miner associated with Baccharis (Asteraceae) from Southern Peru (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae)

“…As discussed in Brito et al (2016), there exists a "taxonomic impediment" for the progress of studies on Neotropical gracillariids in general. Therefore, regional revisions of micromoth faunas would represent an important advance to the knowledge of this diverse group in Peru (e.g., Davis et al 2020), particularly in areas that are subject to the highest rates of anthropic environmental degradation, like the environments of the southern Andes of Peru.…”

“…It includes global record highs of species richness and endemism rates for many taxa of Lepidoptera, particularly along the eastern slopes of the Andes (Lamas 2003;Pyrcz 2004;Hall 2005;Ignatov et al 2011;Willmott et al 2011;Pyrcz et al 2014;Sublett et al 2019). On the other hand, the level of knowledge of the lepidopteran fauna on the southwestern slopes of the Peruvian Andes is poor, based on a small number of studies of butterflies (Lamas 1977;Cerdeña et al 2014;Farfán 2018;Farfán et al 2020b), and with recent records of moths (Cerdeña et al 2019;Farfán et al 2020a), including the first record of a Gracillariidae species for this region (Davis et al 2020).…”

“…Particularly in Peru, currently only 28 species of gracillariids are known (Kawakita et al 2019;Davis et al 2020;De Prins and De Prins 2020). From these, one is a non-native species introduced in the coastal area (Castillo and Cornejo 1996), two species were recently reported from southwestern Peru (Vargas 2010;Davis et al 2020), five were described from northern Peru (Kawakita et al 2019), and 19 species were described in the early last century by Edward Meyrick (Meyrick 1915(Meyrick , 1921 from material collected by Herbert Simpson Parish from the central Peruvian coast (Lima), central Andes (Matucana, Oroya, Huancayo, Jauja), and northeastern Peruvian Amazon (Iquitos, Yurimaguas) during two collecting trips to the tropics in 1914 and 1920 (Alexander 1916(Alexander , 1921. These species in particular remain only known from the type specimens, some of which have deteriorated (Brito et al 2017;De Prins et al 2019).…”

Cryptic Diversity in the Monotypic Neotropical Micromoth Genus Angelabella (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) in the Peru-Chile Desert

“…The geographic distribution is poorly documented for a large number of the currently described Neotropical gracillariids, many of which are recorded only from the type locality [ 52 ]. This is the case of the Peruvian fauna of Gracillariidae, with only 28 native species recorded despite the high plant and environmental diversity of this country [ 52 , 53 , 54 ].…”

On the natural history of Cosmophyga cortesi Vargas (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), a little-known geometrid moth of the Atacama Desert

“…The transverse valleys of northern Chile harbor an important part of the biodiversity of the Atacama Desert, because their narrow perennial or semi-perennial water courses, which flow from the western slopes of the Andes range to the Pacific coast, enable the development of a wide range of organisms (Luebert and Pliscoff, 2006;Estades et al, 2007). Although with a low diversity of Lepidoptera, as expected for a hyperarid desert, these valleys harbor some species with narrow geographic ranges (Vargas-Ortiz et al, 2019) and represent the southern limit on the western margin of South America for some more widespread ones (Vargas, 2019;Davis et al, 2020). Unfortunately, the intensive agricultural activity in the transverse valleys has produced a remarkable modification of the natural habitats, with a drastic reduction of the area originally covered by natural vegetation and an uncontrolled increase of cultivated lands (Luebert and Pliscoff, 2006).…”