Conventional resistance of experimental maize lines to corn earworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), fall armyworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), southwestern corn borer (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), and sugarcane borer (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

Plant resistance is a useful component of integrated pest management for several insects that are economically damaging to maize, Zea mays L. In this study, 15 experimental lines of maize derived from a backcross breeding program were evaluated for resistance to corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie); fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith); southwestern corn borer, Diatraea grandiosella Dyar; and sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis (F.). Experimental line 100-R-3 was resistant in the field to leaf feeding by fall armyworm and line 116-B-10 was resistant in the field to leaf feeding by fall armyworm and leaf and stalk feeding by southwestern corn borer. When corn earworm larvae were fed field harvested silks from experimental line 81-9-B in the laboratory, their pupal weights were significantly lower than the pupal weights of larvae that were fed silks from the resistant control, Zapalote Chico. Maysin levels lower than those commonly associated with corn earworm resistance were present in the resistant experimental line, 107-8-7, indicating a new basis confers resistance to corn earworm in this line. These resistant experimental lines will provide plant breeders with new sources of resistance to lepidopterous insects for the development of improved maize breeding populations.     

Binomial sequential sampling plans for late instars of European corn borer (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), corn earworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), and damaged kernels in sweet corn ears

Late-season infestations of European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner), and corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), were sampled to develop binomial sequential sampling plans for larval infestations and damaged kernels in sweet corn, Zea mays L., ears, near harvest. Fields were sampled to obtain a range of larval densities likely to be encountered over a range of infestation levels and field conditions. Binomial sampling plans were developed for O. nubilalis larvae, H. zea larvae, O. nubilalis, and H. zea larvae combined, and for damaged sweet corn kernels. Observed densities ranged from 0.01 to 4.40 larvae per ear for O. nubilalis, 0.005-1.62 larvae per ear for H. zea, and 0.004-36.12 damaged kernels per ear. Results of resampling analyses, based on the proportion of ears infested with one or more larvae, or damaged kernels, indicated an average sample size of 34-37 ears was necessary to classify whether larval infestations, or the incidence of damaged kernels, exceeded 5%. Two operating characteristic curves are presented for each of the four sampling plans. Initial results, with upper bounds of 0.10, and alpha (type I) and beta (type II) error rates at 0.10 and 0.05, respectively, resulted in a 90% probability of making the correct management decision at infestation levels >10%. To improve performance of the sampling plans, we modified the binomial plans by reducing the upper bound to 0.075, while maintaining the same error rates. This plan resulted in a higher probability (>95%) of making the correct management decision to reject a sweet corn load when infestation levels are >10%.     

Bionomy of Anicla mahalpa Schaus, 1898 (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Noctuinae), in the laboratory

The genus Anicla Grote, 1874 is composed of eleven species; their larvae are harmful, mainly to native and cultivated grasses, but up to now, there is information available of only two species. This study aims at detailing the bionomy of A. mahalpa Schaus; the data were obtained from a laboratory rearing under the following settings: 20 +/- 2 masculineC, 70 +/- 10% relative humidity and 12 hours of photoperiod. Larvae were fed on ryegrass, Lolium multiflorum Lam. (Poaceae). The results expressed by the mean and respective standard error for the periods of each phase, in days, were the following: egg 6.00 +/- 0.00, larva 36.47 +/- 0.44, pre-pupa 5.23 +/- 0.21, pupa 23.60 +/- 0.37, and adult: longevity 15.24 +/- 0.75 with pre-egg-laying-periods of 5.29 +/- 0.32; egg-laying period, 9.64 +/- 0.81, and post-egg-laying period, 0.71 +/- 0.27 days. The mean number of egg-laying cycles per female was 7.36 +/- 0.20 and 2,014.21 +/- 78.93 eggs per female. Eggs, which are subspheric, have a diameter of 0.76 +/- 0.01 mm; larvae passed through six instars; their head capsules width, provided a mean ratio of growth of 1.482. Pupae presented a mean width and length of 6.07 +/- 0.06 and 17.24 +/- 0.19 mm, respectively and weight of 0.33 +/- 0.01 g.     

Review of the genus Ctenopseustis Meyrick (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), with reinstatement of two species

Abstract

The genus Ctenopseustis Meyrick (Tortricinae: Archipini) is reviewed. The species C. fraterna Philpot, 1930 and C. servana Walker, 1863 are reinstated, and the concept of C. obliquana (Walker, 1863) is redefined. Synonymies are given for each species, and characteristics are described and illustrated.     

The complete mitochondrial genome of Biston panterinaria (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), with phylogenetic utility of mitochondrial genome in the Lepidoptera

The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of the Chinese pistacia looper Biston panterinaria was sequenced and annotated (15,517 bp). It contains the typical 37 genes of animal mitogenomes and a high A + T content (79.5%). All protein coding genes (PCGs) use standard ATN initiation codons except for cytochrome c oxidase 1 (COX1) with CGA. Eleven PCGs use a common stop codon of TAA or TAG, whereas COX2 and NADH dehydrogenase 4 (ND4) use a single T. All transfer RNA (tRNA) genes have the typical clover-leaf structure with the exception of tRNA^Ser(AGN). We reconstructed a preliminary mitochondrial phylogeny of six ditrysian superfamilies and performed comparative analyses of inference methods (Bayesian Inference (BI), Maximum Likelihood (ML), and Maximum Parsimony (MP)), dataset compositions (including and excluding 3rd codon positions), and alignment methods (Muscle, Clustal W, and MAFFT). Our analyses indicated that inference methods and dataset compositions more significantly affected the phylogenetic results than alignment methods. BI analysis consistently revealed uncontroversial relationships with all dataset compositions. By contrast, ML analysis failed to reconstruct stable phylogeny at two nodes, whereas MP analysis had more difficulties in the tree resolution and nodal support. Distinct from most previous studies, our analyses revealed that Geometroidea had a closer lineage relationship with Bombycoidea than Noctuoidea. Similar to previous molecular studies, our analyses revealed that Hesperiidae were nested in the Papilionoidea clade, providing further evidence to the previous concept that Papilionoidea was paraphyletic, and none of the butterflies were associated with the Macroheterocera.     

Dyspessa peri (Lepidoptera: Cossidae), a new species of Cossidae from Afghanistan

Dyspessa peri sp. n. (Lepidoptera: Cossidae) is described from Sarobi in Central Afghanistan. The new species is closely related to D. tristis A. Bang-Haas, 1912, and is distinguished by peculiarities of the wing pattern and structure of the male genitalia.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D58AAAC5-90F2-4D06-9DB2-C4D3CDE36265     

A Review of the Korean Thyatiridae (Lepidoptera), including the Mt. Changbai-shan

The Korean Thyatiridae is reviewed, with 29 known species. Of them, a new species of the genus Parapsestis Warren is found and it will be described in a separate paper by Laszló et al, (2006). The checklist of the taxa and the worldwide distribution of the species, including the available information of bionomics, are presented.     

Revision of the genus Xylomoia Staudinger (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), with descriptions of two new species

Seven species are included in the genus Xylomoia Staudinger, two of which are new: X. retinax sp.n. from the Novosibirsk area, Western Siberia, and from the Chelyabinsk area, southern Ural Mountains, and X. stangelmaieri sp.n. from Caorle, Venezia Giulia, on the Adriatic coast. A North American species, Chortodes didonea (Smith) comb.n., is removed from the genus. According to a cladistic analysis, the genus Xylomoia comprises one plesiomorphic species group, the chagnoni group, and two apomorphic groups: the graminea and strix groups. The latter are exclusively temperate Palaearctic. Xylomoia chagnoni (Barnes & McDunnough) is the only Nearctic species of the genus, and the loosely related X. apameaoides (Hacker) was recently described from Turkey. In geographical isolation, these two species have retained many ancestral features. In the more central area, the common ancestor of the graminea and strix groups has evolved into at least five species. The locality and rarity of the species of Xylomoia seemingly result from adaptation of the species to moist habitats, the larvae probably bore inside grass stems (the case of X. chagnoni ). What are called lock-and-key mechanisms may lead to the use of non-independent character states in a cladistic analysis; particularly in the case of homoplasy this kind of double-weighting may result in erroneous cladograms. In Xylomoia , deleting female lock-and-keys affected only the number of cladograms produced, whereas omitting the corresponding male characters had profound effects on the cladogram.     

Sex pheromone components of the rice leaffolder,Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), in Indonesia

Field tests of three synthetic sex pheromone blends (Japanese blend: Z11–18:Ald (55 μg), Z13–18:Ald (500 μg), Z11–18:OH (120 μg) and Z13–18:OH (180 μg), Indian blend: Z11–16:Ac (50 μg) and Z13–18:Ac (500 μg) and Philippine blend: Z11–16:Ac (500 μg) and Z13–18:Ac (10 μg) based on geographic variations in sex pheromones) of the rice leaffolder moth, Cnaphalocrocis medinalis Guenée (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), were conducted at Yogyakarta (Java), and at Sempidi and Penatih (Bali), Indonesia. Only the Japanese blend attracted significant numbers of male C. medinalis, while neither the Indian nor the Philippine blend showed any attractiveness to the males. In the GC–MS analysis of a crude extract from pheromone glands of female C. medinalis collected at Sanur, Bali. Indonesia, Z11–18:Ald, Z13–18:Ald, Z11–18:OH and Z13–18:OH were detected at a ratio of 10:100:26:37, and the total amount was approximately 0.8 ng/female. Neither Z11–16:Ac nor Z13–18:Ac were detected. These results suggest that C. medinalis that respond to the Japanese blend are widely distributed from Eastern Asia through Southeast Asia.     

Phylogeny of the superfamily Gelechioidea (Lepidoptera: Obtectomera), with an exploratory application on geometric morphometrics

The superfamily Gelechioidea (Lepidoptera: Obtectomera) has a high species diversity. It consists of more than 18,400 described species and has a global distribution. Among it, large numbers of species were reported to be economically important to people's production and life. However, relationships among families or subfamilies in Gelechioidea have been exceptionally difficult to resolve using morphology or single gene genealogies. Multiple gene genealogies had been used in the molecular phylogenetic studies on Gelechioidea during the past years, but their phylogenetic relationships remain to be controversial mainly due to their limited taxa sampling relative to such high species diversity. In this paper, 89 ingroup species representing 55 genera are sequenced and added to the data downloaded from GenBank, and six species representing four closely related superfamilies are chosen as outgroup. The molecular phylogeny of Gelechioidea is reconstructed based on the concatenated data set composed of one mitochondrial marker (COI) and seven nuclear markers (CAD, EF-1ɑ, GAPDH, IDH, MDH, RpS5, wingless). The phylogenetic results, taking into consideration of the comparative morphological study, show that the clade of Gelechioidea is strongly supported and separated from other superfamilies, which further proves its monophyly. Five families are newly defined: Autostichidae sensu nov., Depressariidae sensu nov., Peleopodidae sensu nov., Ashinagidae sensu nov. and Epimarptidae sensu nov. Meanwhile, a monophyletic “SSABM” clade considered to be closely related is proposed for the first time, consisting of Stathmopodidae, Scythrididae, Ashinagidae, Blastobasidae and Momphidae. Moreover, geometric morphometric analyses using merged landmark data set from fore and hind wings of 118 representative species are conducted. The phenetic tree shows that the monophyly and phylogenetic relationships correspond with the results of molecular phylogeny largely, which well proves its importance and potential application in both phylogenetic reconstruction and species identification.     

Sex pheromone composition of the variegated cutworm,Peridroma saucia (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), in Korea

This study was conducted to investigate the sex pheromone composition of the variegated cutworm (Peridroma saucia Hübner) in Korea. The sex pheromone components of P. saucia were identified as (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate (Z9-14:Ac) and (Z)-11-hexadecenyl acetate (Z11-16:Ac) through GC-EAD and GC–MS analysis. EAG tests of the male antennae revealed that the Z9-14:AC exerted significantly larger responses than other compounds. The female moths primarily called and copulated between 6 h and 7 h after the lights off, and the ratio of two pheromone components, Z9-14:Ac and Z11-16:Ac, in the sex pheromone gland during this period was 1:2.1 to 1:2.4. In the field trapping studies, a large number of male moths were caught in the traps baited with the mixtures of Z9-14:Ac and Z11-16:Ac at the ratios ranging from 2.3:1 to 1:4, with the highest trap catches at 1:1 to 1:2.3 ratios of the two components. The seasonal flight activities of P. saucia monitored by using pheromone lures revealed complicated patterns in Korea. Specifically, the first flight period was spread over a long period and irregular, while the second flight period differed among the localities examined.     

Sex pheromone composition of the cotton caterpillar,Palpita indica (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), in Korea

This study was conducted to investigate the sex pheromone composition of Palpita (=Diaphania) indica (Saunders) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) in Korea. Two sex pheromone components, E11-16:Al and E,E-10,12-16:Al, were identified by GC and GC-EAD analysis of sex pheromone gland extracts. The mean ratios of the two components, E11-16:Al and E,E-10,12-16:Al, were about 6.5:3.5 and 7.5:2.5 in gland extracts and in SPME collection, respectively. In field bioassays, maximum attraction occurred in traps baited with a 7:3 ratio of E11-16:Al and E,E-10,12-16:Al. The head extracts of P. indica stimulated the sex pheromone production of P. indica, as well as Hez-PBAN and PssPT, indicating that a PBAN-like substance exists in the head extracts of P. indica. Whole-mount immunocytochemistry showed that three groups of neurosecretory cells showed PBAN-like immunoreactivity in the SEG of P. indica. The PBAN-like immunoreactivity connected to the Corpora Cardiaca, a neurohemal organ. Also, PBAN-like immunoreactivity was found in the brain and in the thoracic and third/fourth abdominal ganglia. The addition of sex pheromone components of Peridroma saucia to the sex pheromone of P. indica greatly improved the attraction of P. indica males. The mixing of the sex pheromone components of S. exigua did not significantly increase the catches of P. indica, while the sex pheromone of H. armigera completely inhibited the attractiveness.     

Conservation of Hipparchia autonoe (Esper) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), Natural Monument in South Korea

Hipparchia autonoe, designated Natural Monument no. 458, is a species inhabiting Mt. Halla on Jeju Island, which is the only habitat of H. autonoe in South Korea. Recently, this species is in danger of extinction as the population has been remarkably reduced because its host plants and nectar plants are gradually disappearing due to plant succession in its habitat. On the climbing road of Jeju Island Eorimok, H. autonoe used to be observed at and above 1300 m a.s.l. However, since Sasa quelpaertensis has recently expanded its habitat up to 1400 m, H. autonoe is now observed at and above 1500 m. In Mongolia, the population of H. autonoe seems quite stable as there are dense populations of a host plant and nectar plants. Accordingly it is judged that we can maintain a stable community for support of H. autonoe if we successfully manage the host plant and nectar plant communities by controlling the density of S. quelpaertensis using biological and physical control methods. Comparative analysis of DNA barcode region of COI (658 bp) was done to check the homogeneity and the genetic diversity of H. autonoe collected in Korea and Mongolia. The DNA sequence difference among individuals collected in South Korea was 0.0–0.2%, and in Mongolia 0.0–1.4%. This confirmed a 0.06–1.2% barcoding gap. We believe that this result will provide basic information useful to guide conservation of H. autonoe in South Korea.     

中国新发现外来入侵害虫——南美番茄潜叶蛾(鳞翅目:麦蛾科)

2017年8月,在新疆维吾尔自治区伊犁哈萨克自治州露地鲜食番茄上发现一种鳞翅目害虫,以幼虫潜食叶肉、蛀食果实,经鉴定为南美番茄潜叶蛾。该害虫原产南美洲的秘鲁,2006年入侵欧洲的西班牙,截至2017年5月,已在南美洲、欧洲、非洲、中美洲和亚洲的80多个国家和地区发生,严重危害鲜食番茄、加工番茄和樱桃番茄/圣女果,产量损失最高可达80%～100%。本文提供了南美番茄潜叶蛾的危害情况及主要形态鉴定特征,提出了防范其进一步扩散危害的措施建议以及今后应开展的主要研究方向,包括植物检疫、发生分布调查、生物学生态学特性研究、天敌资源挖掘利用等,以为积极应对南美番茄潜叶蛾对我国农业生产安全的威胁提供参考。     

Gypsochroa renitidata (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Desmobathrinae), a genus and species new for the fauna of Iran

Both the genus and the species Gypsochroa renitidata (Hübner, 1817) are reported for the first time from Iran. Diagnostic characters of the species including figures of the wing and genitalia are presented. The record is confirmed by means of DNA barcoding.     

Lemyra flammeola (Moore) (Lepidoptera,Arctiidae), new to Korea

An arctiine species Lemyra flammeola (Moore) is newly recorded from Korea. Three specimens of L. flammeola were collected on the island of Jejudo in September of 2009. Here we provide a diagnosis and systematic account of L. flammeola. Up to now 79 species of Arctiidae have been recorded from the Korean peninsula.