Philodoria hauicola
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 hauicola

description: Philodoria hauicola (Swezey, 1910)
Figs. 20C, 34F, 37D, 50F, 51D, 52D, 59L, 77A, 92, 93F.
Gracilaria hauicola Swezey, 1910: 106; pl. 3, fig. 5; Swezey 1913b: 224.
Parectopa hauicola (Swezey, 1910); Swezey 1928: 190.
Philodoria hauicola (Swezey, 1910); Zimmerman 1978a: 680, figs. 437, 438, 442, 448, 454.
Type locality. Mt. Tantalus (Oahu)
Type material. Lectotype ♂, Tantalus, Oahu, [summer.1909], Coll. O.H.S [O.H. Swezey], ex Hibiscus [tiliaceus], |TYPE OF 212 Gracilaria hauicola Swezey | in BPBM (here designated). Paralectotype 4♂, 4 (sex unknown); all specimens are same data and locality as lectotype; 2 (sex unknown), No. 34168, 34168 in BPBM; 4♂, ex “hau” (= Hibiscus tiliaceus) in USNM. Described from an unspecified number of specimens from Mt. Tantalus, Oahu. In the original description, Swezey mentioned that “My specimens were reared from cocoons collected this summer on Tantalus”. We identified nine specimens, one labeled ‘TYPE’, and eight others. Given the manner in which the descriptions were written, Swezey likely considered the ‘TYPE’ specimen as the holotype and the remaining eight as paratypes, as noted in a caption by Zimmerman (1978a: 669). But because a holotype was not specified explicitly in the description, the so-labeled types and paratypes are can all be considered syntypes under Article 73.2 of the Code (ICZN 1999), and any of them can be designated as lectotype under Article 74 of the Code (ICZN 1999). The syntype specimen bearing the label ‘TYPE’ is here designated as lectotype (Fig. 20C) and the remaining syntypes are paralectotypes.
Additional material. 27 (9♂, 10♀, 8 sex unknown). Oahu: 4♂, 3♀, Waikiki, Coll. O.H.S, ‘ Hau tree’ (= Hibiscus tiliaceus), 3♂, 2♀ in USNM, 1♂, 1♀, SK694♂| BPBM34167; 5♂, 4♀, 6 (sex unknown), Kaneohe T.H., ‘ISS.’ (= adult emrged) 27.vii.1915, Aug. Busck Collector, “Leaf mines on Hau”, SK 695♀ in USNM; 3♀, 1 (sex unknown), Nuuanu Pali, 16–21.v.2016 em., S. Kobayashi leg., host: H. tiliaceus, 3.v.2016 (larva), SK 618♀, SK 619♀ / SK750(head) in BPBM; Maui: 1♀, 1 (sex unknown), Iao Valley, 26& 29.iv.2013 (stored), C.A. Johns leg., host: H. tiliaceus, 14.iv.2013, CJ065 (sex unknown) / KT982405, CJ087 ♀ in BPBM. Hawaii (Big Island): 1♂, Hawaii, 0-50’, Volcanoes Natn. [National] Park, Poupou Kauka, 20.vii.1976, K. & E. Sattler, B.M.1976-605, Philodoria sp. 17 (Hawaii), D. C. Lees Sep. 2016, BMNH(E) 1621255 in NHMUK.
Diagnosis. Distinguished from other congeners by having a lemon-yellow streak from costal fold to 2/5, then obliquely, at 3/5 to middle the forewing (Fig. 20C); the male genitalia having a rather short and broad phallus (Fig. 52D); the female genitalia having two small pod-like signa with a series of minute spines (Fig. 59L).
Redescription: Adult (Figs. 20C, 34F, 37D). Wingspan 7–8 mm in type series; forewing length 3.25 mm in lectotype, 2.8–3.2 mm in paralectotypes. Head dirty white; frons white; maxillary palpus brown; labial palpus white ocherous, apex of median segment and apical half of terminal segment brown (Figs. 34F, 37D). Antenna white ringed with brown, basal segment white, a little longer than forewing. Thorax and abdomen pale brown above, white below. Forewing brown with a lemon-yellow streak from costal fold to 2/5, then obliquely, at 3/5 to middle to connect with oblique white ds 1, 2: ds 1 at 2/5, ds 2 at 1/4 almost reaches the yellow streak; a short outwardly oblique white cs 3 at 3/5, almost meeting ds 3; apical portion lemon yellow with two or three costal white lines (a, b, c); cilia pale brown. Hindwing and cilia dark fuscous. Legs brown, tarsi ringed with white.
Male genitalia (Figs. 50F, 51D, 52D) (n=1). Capsule 650 µm. Tegumen 0.8–0.9 x length of valva; valva 460 µm long, digitiform and slightly narrowing at middle and rounded at apex and slightly curved toward dorsal side (Fig. 50F). Saccus very slender and needle-shaped in ventral view (Fig. 51D). Phallus 430 µm long and straight with rather small coecum; two series of minute cornuti in vesica (Fig. 52D).
Female genitalia (Fig. 59L) (n=3). 1210 µm long. Ostium bursae large; antrum broad, cup-shaped with a pair of lateral lobes; lamella antevaginalis 180–190 µm, weakly sclerotized, widening toward anterior margin of A7. Ductus bursae broad, middle part weakly sclerotized, round and flat; terminal region of the ductus bursae tubular, biforked. Corpus bursae 680 µm, pyriform; anterior end of corpus bursae weakly sclerotized; paired rows of longitudinal, partly sclerotized wrinkles; two small podlike signa with a series of minute spines.
Distribution. Kauai, Oahu, Maui and Hawaii (Big island) (Swezey 1910b).
Host plants. Malvaceae: Hibiscus tiliaceus L. (Swezey 1910b).
Biology. (Figs. 92, 93F). Swezey (1913b: 224) reported that “this species very abundantly mines the leaves of the "hau" tree, Partitium tiliaceum (= Hibiscus tiliaceus), in the mountains, and the lowlands as well, of all the Islands. There are often many mines per leaf. The larvae emerge to pupate in white oval cocoons on the surface of leaves and other objects”. We observed larvae forming a linear-blotch mine beginning with a very slender, linear shape (Fig. 92D, E) that gradually expanded as they fed and grew (Fig. 92H, I). In early instars, linear mine is 2.5–3.5 cm in length and 1–2 mm in width; frass is brown and 0.1–0.2 mm in width. Later blotch mine is 5–10 mm diameter (Fig. 92J). Usually 5–15 mines per leaf (Fig. 92A–C). Larva pale yellow, first to second instars are 1.5–2.5 mm long (Fig. 92G) and late instar is 4.0–6.0 mm long (Fig. 92I, J). Pupation in the white cocoon outside of mine, on the adaxial leaf (Fig. 92K, L); 5.5 mm in length and 2.5–3.0 mm in width. At Iao Valley, Maui, we observed P. hibiscella and P. hauicola co-occuring on the same host plant, H. tiliaceus.
Parasitoids. (Fig. 106A–F). Eulophidae: Pholetesor bedelliae (Viereck, 1911), Braconidae; Closterocerus sp., Euderus metallicus (Ashmead, 1901), Pnigalio externa (Timberlake, 1927), Sympiesis vagans (Timberlake, 1926) (Zimmerman 1978a).
Remarks. Swezey (1910b: 106; 1954: 88) reported larval mines and similar mines on Hibiscus: “This moth I have named from the ‘hau’ tree (Paritium tiliaceum) whose leaves its larvae mine quite extensively. Some times one finds practically all of the leaves mined and often a dozen or more per leaf. It probably occurs on all the islands where the ‘hau’ tree occurs. I have observed it at Koloa, Kauai; Wailuku, Maui; Waikiki and Tantalus, Oahu. The white rounded-oval cocoons were found quite abundant on the surface of leaves, and also on fence-posts situated beneath ‘hau’ trees.” Based on his records, these mines could be from a number of currently recognized different Philodoria species: Kauai: P. limahuliensis and/or undiscovered species, Oahu, Maui and Hawaii (Big island): P. hauicola and/or P. hibiscella. The host plant, H. tiliaceus was probably introduced by early Polynesians, about a thousand years ago (Zimmerman 1960; 1978a). Interestingly, larvae of P. hauicola have not been observed on Hawaiian endemic Hibiscus plants.
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 88-90, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4944.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4681813