Philodoria urerana
Creators: name: Kobayashi, Shigeki
name: Johns, Chris A.
name: Kawahara, Akito Y.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Gracillariidae
Philodoria
Philodoria urerana

description: Philodoria urerana (Swezey, 1915)
Figs. 20A, B, 33G, 50E, 51C, 52C, 59E, 78E, F, 95A–C.
Gracilaria urerana Swezey, 1915: 95–96.
Parectopa urerana (Swezey, 1915); Swezey 1928: 191.
Philodoria urerana (Swezey, 1915); Zimmerman 1978a: 691, figs. 446, 453, 460.
Type locality. Mt. Tantalus (Oahu).
Type material. Lectotype ♀, Mt.Tantalus, Oahu, 16.iii.1915, O.H. Swezey, ex Urera [sandwicensis], |TYPE OF 214 Gracilaria urerana Swezey | top one of two cotypes of the same type mount designated by Zimmerman (1978a, 691, fig. 446) in BPBM (Fig. 20A). Paralectotype 1 (sex unknown), bottom one of the same mount of lectotype (Fig. 20B). 17 including six ‘syntypes’ (2♂, 6♀, 9 sex unknown): 2♂, 4♀, 6 (sex unknown), same data and locality as lectotype, SK671♂, 672♂, 673♀ | BPBM 34363, BPBM 34634 (“ex blotch mine”), BPBM 34365– BPBM 34369; 2♀, 3 (sex unknown), Same label, “ex serpentine mine” (3 sex unknown) in USNM. This species is described from eight specimens reared from Urera sandvicensis and from the same lot of leaves as those collected for P. ‘ ureraella ’. We examined the lectotype and 18 specimens in BPBM and USNM that bear the same data as the lectotype.
Additional material. Oahu: 1♂, Waianae, 28.iii.2016 (stored), K.Bustamente leg.,host: Urera glabra 9.xi.2015, KMB02, CJ533, SK670♂ in BPBM; 1♂, 1♀, Kaau Crater, 27.vii.2014 (stored), C.A. Johns leg., 10.vii.2014, CJ307, PHIL0032 ♀, PHIL0033♂, in BPBM (only genitalia slides remain).
Diagnosis. Forewing brownish fuscous to brown with narrow oblique white ds 1–3. Similar to P. hibiscella (Swezey), but distinguished by the darker forewing with pale lemon-yellow apex.
Redescription: Adult (Figs. 20A, B, 33G). Wingspan 9–11 mm in type series; forewing length 4.5 mm in lectotype, 3.5–4.6 mm in paralectotypes. Head dull ocherous; and frons ocherous; maxillary palpus ocherous, fuscous at apical portion; labial palpus white, terminal segment fuscous externally. Antenna fuscous, paler at the apex, 1.5x length of forewing. Thorax pale brownish ocherous. Forewing brownish fuscous to brown with narrow oblique white streaks: ds 1 at 1/4, ds 2 at 1/2, ds 3 at 3/4, about equally spaced, wider at base, tapering to apex, bent outwards; cs 3 at 2/3, meeting ds 3 in the middle of wing; apical portion pale lemon-yellow with a pale blue spot, sometimes dorsal half with fuscous patch from the dorsum to termen. Cilia white, apical cilia with four fuscous costal lines, terminal cilia fuscous, yellowish at base. Hindwing and cilia light fuscous. Abdomen grayish fuscous. Legs ocherous, fore and mid tibiae fuscous above, tarsi barred with fuscous.
Male genitalia (Figs. 50E, 51C, 52C) (n=3). Capsule 1030 µm. Tegumen 0.8–0.9 x length of valva; valva 690 µm long, tapering along costal margin from 2/5 to apex, slightly rounded at apex and curvied toward dorsally (Fig. 50E). Saccus slender and needle-shaped in ventral view (Fig. 51C). Phallus 670 µm long and straight with developed coecum; cornuti in vesica indistinct (Fig. 52C).
Female genitalia (Fig. 59E) (n=1). 1450 µm long. Ostium bursae large; antrum deeply cup-shaped with a pair of thick lateral lobes; lamella antevaginalis 240 µm, weakly sclerotized, trapezoid in ventral view, widening toward anterior margin of A7. Ductus bursae slender and long, middle part weakly sclerotized, round and flat; terminus of ductus bursae tubular, biforked. Corpus bursae 740 µm, oblong, signa a pair of longitudinal, partly sclerotized wrinkles.
Distribution. Oahu (Swezey 1915).
Host plants. Urticaceae: Urera sandvicensis Wedd. (Swezey 1915) and U. glabra Wedd.: new record. Urera is now rare on the island of Hawaii (Big Island), but U. glabra can still be found in large numbers on Oahu.
Biology. (Fig. 95A–C) Swezey (1915: 96) reported the biology: “The mine is very slender where it starts from an egg placed on the under side of the leaf, it gradually widens as the larva grows, becomes serpentine and towards the last enlarges to a blotch. The larva emerges to spin its whitish cocoon on the surface of the leaf. The moths emerged from the cocoons in about ten days.” We observed larvae mining leaves of U. glabra beginning with a slender, tortuous linear mine that became a blotch mine (Fig. 95A, B) that gradually expanded as larvae grew (Fig. 95A). Usually 2–3 mines per leaf. The final instar larva spun a reddish-brown cocoon at the leaf margin, the leaf margin was slightly curled upwards from the contraction of the cocoon silk (Fig. 95C). Mines were rarely observed during our field surveys, but nearly all mines that we did see were active or fresh.
Parasitoids. Eulophidae: Sierola sp., Bethylidae; Euderus metallicus (Ashmead, 1901) (Zimmerman 1978a).
Remarks. We discount the distribution records from the island of Hawaii (Big Island) determined by Swezey that were mentioned in Zimmerman (1978a). We could not identify the specimens from Kilauea, Hawaii (Big Island) stored in BPBM, USNM and NHMUK. We also investigated two populations of Urera plants on the island of Hawaii (Big Island), but these plants did not have any Philodoria mines. The type series was reared by Swezey from the same lot of leaves from which the type series of “ P. ureraella ” (P. ureraella and P. opuhe in the present study) was reared. In the present study, P. urerana was obtained from leaves of Urera glabra on Oahu.
description: Published as part of Kobayashi, Shigeki, Johns, Chris A. & Kawahara, Akito Y., 2021, Revision of the Hawaiian endemic leaf-mining moth genus Philodoria Walsingham (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae): its conservation status, host plants and descriptions of thirteen new species, pp. 1-175 in Zootaxa 4944 (1) on pages 87-88, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4944.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4681813