Astrotischeria Puplesis & Diskus 2003
Creators: name: Stonis, Jonas R.
name: Diškus, Arūnas
name: Remeikis, Andrius
name: Orlovskytė, Svetlana
name: Solis, Alma
name: Paulavičiūtė, Brigita
name: Xu, Jiasheng
name: Dai, Xiaohua
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Tischeriidae
Astrotischeria

description: 10. Genus Astrotischeria Puplesis & Diškus, 2003
(Figs 417–481)
Astrotischeria Puplesis & Diškus, 2003: 109–111. Type species: Astrotischeria karsholti Puplesis & Diškus, 2003: 111–112.
Diagnosis. In the male genitalia, species of Astrotischeria are characterized by a unique, divided valva possessing variously developed dorsal lobe (or lobes), usually a long tegumen and vinculum, a rod-like, apically bifid phallus, and often a short, modified, four-lobed uncus (sometimes the lateral lobes are significantly longer and elongated in comparison to median lobes, the median lobes very short and rounded). In the female genitalia, the genus is characterized by small ovipositor lobes (occasionally they are fully reduced or strongly modified: thickened and not rounded), a weakly developed caudal plate of prela, and usually a very long and slender proximal part of the corpus bursae. Leaf mines of Astrotischeria are irregular blotch-like on Asteraceae (occasionally Malvaceae) host plants; before pupation fully grown larvae of a few species roll up the margin of the mined leaf; a nidus is usually invisible, indistinctive. See Tabs 2, 3 for occurrence of these diagnostic characters in other genera of Tischeriidae.
Notes. External characters of the adults and wing venation characters are not informative and insufficient for the diagnosis of Astrotischeria because of their general uniformity or, in some cases, variability of these characters. Cases of sexual dimorphism are known among some Astrotischeria species (Stonis et al. 2019b, 2020b). According to the results of molecular analysis, Astrotischeria appeared as a distinct genus and a sister taxon either with Gnathitischeria (Figs 63, 64) or Paratischeria (Fig. 62). This is not in conflict with the morphology data.
Adult. Head: frontal tuft overlapping the frons, comprised of long lamellar scales; pecten distinctive; collar distinctly paired, comprised of slender lamellar scales. Forewing irregularly sparsely speckled or with darker scales at the apex and along costal and dorsal margin, or with a few irregular spots (the latter are wider and brighter in females). Hindwing slender, androconia absent.
Male genitalia. Uncus modified, with four lobes: two short or medium long lateral and two short, usually rounded median lobes; only sometimes uncus with a single pair of short or slightly longer lobes. Socii membranous, large, usually distinctly paired and always distinctly spinose. Tegumen usually long; diaphragm without spines; pseudognathos absent. Unlike other Tischeriidae (including the resembling Neotischeria but excluding Gnathitischeria gen. nov., described below), valva divided, with simple and slender ventral lobe and distinct, often pointed dorsal lobe(s); basal process of the valva varies from medium short to medium long; occasionally basal process is long. Transtilla and juxta absent. Anellus membranous, laterally often thickened and with about three pairs of lateral chetae or numerous tiny spines; occasionally anellus indistinctive, weakly developed. Vinculum usually long, occasionally medium short or short, with a triangular or widely rounded ventral plate. Phallus slender, rod-like, apically divided, occasionally with slender apical lobes or slender spines.
Female genitalia. Ovipositor lobes small, occasionally large; the gap between ovipositor lobes wide; second pair of ovipositor lobes usually two times smaller in comparison to main ovipositor lobes; lateral lobes small to large. Occasionally ovipositor lobes are fully reduced or modified: thickened and not rounded. One species, A. ochrimaculosa Diškus, Stonis & Vargas, possesses an additional, unique round structure, a telpek (see Stonis et al. 2019c). Anterior apophyses often equal in length with posterior apophyses, or the latter slightly shorter, or, occasionally, longer. Prela with three pairs of relatively long mainly rod-like projections; sometimes median and inner prela with wide, lobe-like basal parts; inner prela usually long, membrane between these prela is sometimes folded or even thickened. Caudal sclerite weakly developed, usually indistinctive, occasionally with a short, weakly chitinized caudal spine-like projection. Antrum absent. Accessory sac usually indistinctive or absent; ductus spermathecae slender, often with 2–4, sometimes 7–10 coils; vesicle usually small, irregularly shaped or ringshaped. Corpus bursae often with a very long and slender “neck”; pectinations of main body of corpus bursae absent but often there are tiny spines or papilla-like pectinations on slender “neck” of the corpus bursae.
Bionomics. The genus is trophically associated with Asteraceae host plants, however, about five species are known to feed on Malvaceae. Leaf mines of Astrotischeria are irregular, blotch-like, usually without frass, occasionally with a little frass or a stained epidermis; fully grown larvae of a few species roll up margin of the mined leaf; a nidus is often indistinctive, invisible.
Species diversity and geographical distribution. Currently, Astrotischeria is the second largest Tischeriidae genus, comprising predominantly Asteraceae-feeding species. Many of the known species were primarily described as Tischeria (see Braun 1972), but many species were transferred after erecting the genus Astrotischeria (Diškus & Stonis, 2003). However, after the description of another predominantly Asteraceae-feeding genus, Neotischeria, the following few species without a dorsal lobe on the valva in the male genitalia were also subsequently transferred from Astrotischeria to Neotischeria: N. neotropicana (Diškus & Stonis, 2015), N. capnota (Meyrick, 1915a) (Stonis et al. 2021c), and two species previously attributed to Astrotischeria by Puplesis & Diškus (2003) are here transferred to Neotischeria: N. explosa (Braun, 1923) comb. nov.; N. pallidipennella (Braun, 1972) comb. nov.
Recently, one Astrotischeria species was previously incorrectly transferred to Paratischeria (Xu et al. 2017), and is here transferred back to Astrotischeria: A. heteroterae (Frey & Boll, 1878) comb. nov.
Some lectotypes, paralectotypes, or non-type specimens of five previously little known Astrotischeria species deposited at NHMUK were dissected for the first time and illustrated in the current publication (Figs 426–452): A. plagifera (Meyrick) (Figs 431–435); A. helianthi (Frey & Boll) (Figs 436–438); A. ephaptis (Meyrick) (Figs 440–443); A. solidagonifoliella (Clemens) (Figs 444 –4446); and A. omissa (Braun) (Figs 451, 452).
Here, based on our studies of some material deposited at NHMUK, we confirm the previous synonymization of Tischeria longeciliata Frey & Boll, 1878: 259 with Astrotischeria helianthi (Frey & Boll, 1878) (synonymized by Stonis et al. 2018a). There were three scientific and practical reasons for this taxonomic act: (i) the male lectotype deposited at NHMUK (“Dalas, T. longeciliata, Frey & Boll, Helianthus, Frey collection / Walsingham collection 1910-427”) was not dissected, genitalia are unknown because its abdomen is lost; (ii) externally, there is no possible way to distinguish or differentiate the slightly darker lectotype of longeciliata from the slightly paler lectotype of Astrotischeria helianthi; (iii) both lectotypes were reared from the same host plant, Helianthus.
Currently, the genus Astrotischeria is comprised of 45 named species, however, many other species have already been collected but await publication, including new taxa from the USA (Charley Eiseman, pers. comm.), as well as from Central and South American countries.
The geographical distribution of the genus is limited to the Nearctic and Neotropical regions, including the Caribbean, and is not known outside the Western Hemisphere. The following two species are recorded as far north as Canada: A. occidentalis (Braun), and A. astericola (Braun) (Braun 1972; Pohl et al. 2018). The most southern discoveries of the genus were from Uruguay (A. atlantica Diškus & Stonis, see Stonis et al. 2020b), Argentina, and Chile: A. koehleri (Bourquin, see Bourquin 1962), A. pallens Puplesis & Diškus, A. chilei Puplesis & Diškus (see Diškus & Puplesis 2003; Stonis et al. 2016a). It is important to note that two Scalesia- feeding Astrotischeria species, A. scalesiaella Landry and A. alcedoensis Landry, were described in 2004 from the remote Galapagos Islands (Landry & Roque-Albelo 2004). A search for Astrotischeria species was conducted on Easter Island by Arūnas Diškus, but a species of this genus was not detected.
description: Published as part of Stonis, Jonas R., Diškus, Arūnas, Remeikis, Andrius, Orlovskytė, Svetlana, Solis, Alma, Paulavičiūtė, Brigita, Xu, Jiasheng & Dai, Xiaohua, 2023, Genera of Tischeriidae (Lepidoptera): a review of the global fauna, with descriptions of new taxa, pp. 1-131 in Zootaxa 5333 (1) on pages 96-97, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5333.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/8261139