A peculiar new species of gall-inducing, clearwing moth (Lepidoptera, Sesiidae) associated with Cayaponia in the Atlantic Forest
Open Access
- 24 July 2019
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Pensoft Publishers in ZooKeys
- Vol. 866 (866), 39-63
- https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.866.34202
Abstract
Larvae of most clearwing moths (Lepidoptera, Sesiidae) are endophagous borers of many angiosperms, including their fruits, stems, and roots. Their localized feeding may lead to swellings on those plant parts, but whether the structures produced should be considered true galls is still controversial. In this study we describe a peculiar sesiid moth, Neospheciacecidogenasp. nov. whose larvae induce unusual, external galls on Cayponiapilosa (Vell.) Cogn. (Cucurbitaceae) in the Atlantic Forest of southernmost Brazil. The adults, egg, larva, pupa and the gall are described and illustrated based on light and scanning electron microscopy. Galls are cylindrical and unilocular; they are induced individually on axillary buds of the C.pilosa stem. Unlike larvae of other sesiids, those of N.cecidogenasp. nov. lack abdominal pseudopodia, and show reduced stemata and chaetotaxy. Pupation occurs inside the gall, after having overwintered in the last larval instar. A maximum likelihood tree constructed based on mitochondrial DNA (COI) sequences showed that N.cecidogenasp. nov. is monophyletic and has an average distance of 13% to species of Melittia. The genera Neosphecia Le Cerf, 1916 stat. rev., Premelittia Le Cerf, 1916 stat rev., and Melittina Le Cerf, 1917 stat. rev. are restored from synonyms of Melittia Hübner, 1819 [“1816”].Keywords
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- Insect Galls of Costa Rica and Their ParasitoidsPublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,2014
- Gall-inducing insects of an Araucaria Forest in southern BrazilRevista Brasileira de Entomologia, 2013
- Molecular Identification of Synanthedonini Members (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) using Cytochrome Oxidase IAnnals of the Entomological Society of America, 2012
- Plantas trepadeiras do Parque Estadual das Fontes do Ipiranga (São Paulo, Brasil)Hoehnea, 2011
- New Algorithms and Methods to Estimate Maximum-Likelihood Phylogenies: Assessing the Performance of PhyML 3.0Systematic Biology, 2010
- Molecular Phylogeny of Sesiidae (Lepidoptera) Inferred From Mitochondrial DNA SequencesJournal of Agricultural and Urban Entomology, 2008
- Caracterização do ataque da broca dos frutos do pequizeiroRevista Brasileira de Fruticultura, 2003
- CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choiceNucleic Acids Research, 1994
- Classification of the superfamily Sesioidea (Lepidoptera:Ditrysia)Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 1981
- Clearwing moths of Australia and New Zealand (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae)Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 1974