Chaitophorus leucomelas Koch 1854
Creators: name: Choi, Hwalran
name: Kim, Yeyeun
name: Lee, Seunghwan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Aphididae
Chaitophorus
Chaitophorus leucomelas

description: Chaitophorus leucomelas Koch, 1854
Materials
Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: 87 HA 1644; recordedBy: J. Havelka; individualCount: 24; sex: females; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceStatus: present; disposition: in collection; associatedOccurrences: host: Populus alba; occurrenceID: 71388D05-EB1D-5BF5-A4D7-514768BE84CB; Taxon: taxonID: 2074434; namePublishedInID: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14387414; scientificName: Chaitophorus leucomelas Koch, 1854; namePublishedIn: Koch, C. L. (1854) In Die Pflanzenläuse Aphiden getreu nach dem Leben abgebildet und beschrieben. J. L. Lotzbeck, Nürnberg. Vol. 1, 1–36 pp.; higherClassification: Animalia; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropod; class: Insects; order: Hemiptera; family: Aphididae; genus: Chaitophorus; specificEpithet: leucomelas; taxonRank: species; scientificNameAuthorship: Koch, 1854; nomenclaturalCode: ICZN; taxonomicStatus: accepted; Location: continent: Asia; country: North Korea; countryCode: KP; stateProvince: South Hwanghae; municipality: Kaesong; locality: Gongmin Wang Tomb; decimalLatitude: 37.982; decimalLongitude: 126.473; geodeticDatum: WGS 84; coordinateUncertaintyInMeters: 100; Identification: identifiedBy: Yeyeun Kim; dateIdentified: 2025-03-28; Event: samplingProtocol: hand collected; eventDate: 1987-06-01; year: 1987; month: 06; day: 01; Record Level: type: specimen; modified: 2025-03-28; language: en; rights: Seoul National University; rightsHolder: Seoul National University; accessRights: not for profit use only; institutionID: NPRI; collectionID: SNU
Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: # 5783; recordedBy: J. Havelka; individualCount: 4; sex: females; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceStatus: present; disposition: in collection; associatedOccurrences: host: Populus sp.; occurrenceID: D29D7CDD-DF15-5196-87CE-EEE7A14FDD6F; Taxon: taxonID: 2074434; namePublishedInID: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14387414; scientificName: Chaitophorus leucomelas Koch, 1854; namePublishedIn: Koch, C. L. (1854) In Die Pflanzenläuse Aphiden getreu nach dem Leben abgebildet und beschrieben. J. L. Lotzbeck, Nürnberg. Vol. 1, 1–36 pp.; higherClassification: Animalia; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropod; class: Insects; order: Hemiptera; family: Aphididae; genus: Chaitophorus; specificEpithet: leucomelas; taxonRank: species; scientificNameAuthorship: Koch, 1854; nomenclaturalCode: ICZN; taxonomicStatus: accepted; Location: continent: Asia; country: South Korea; countryCode: KR; stateProvince: North Jeolla Province; municipality: Muju; decimalLatitude: 36.019; decimalLongitude: 127.658; geodeticDatum: WGS 84; coordinateUncertaintyInMeters: 100; Identification: identifiedBy: Yeyeun Kim; dateIdentified: 1989-07-10; Event: samplingProtocol: direct collection; eventDate: 1969-10-29; year: 1969; month: 10; day: 29; Record Level: type: specimen; modified: 1969-10-29; language: en; rights: Seoul National University; rightsHolder: Seoul National University; accessRights: not for profit use only; institutionID: NPRI; collectionID: # 5783; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen
Description
Apterous viviparous female (Fig. 2, Table 2). Colour (macerated specimens). Body pale, leg, cauda and antenna faintly grey. Head, mandibular lamina, whole Ant. except Ant. III through apical half of Ant. V and SIPH more deeply pigmented. URS dark in peak. Morphology. Body ovoid, about 1.98 mm long. Head: flat with stout seta on frons; mandibular lamina with eight or more setae. Antennal length almost 0.6 times as long as body length; PT almost 3 times longer than Ant. VIb. URS short with eight or more setae. Thorax: pronotum smooth. Hind femur and tibia length about 0.51 mm and 0.69 mm, respectively; hind tibia entirely with long and fine setae. Abdomen: abdominal segments fused from II to VII; dorsal cuticles with nodules and faintly pigmented, with fine, long and pointed setae. SIPH 0.02 times the body length. Cauda knobbed with eight setae.
Host plants
Populus alba, P. deltoides, P. nigra, P. simonii, Populus spp. (Blackman and Eastop 2024).
Diagnosis
This species typically has pigmentation on the dorsum, frons and SIPH, but the pigmentation on the dorsum varies depending on the specimen, whereas the pigmentation on the frons and SIPH is always present. Korean Chaitophorus leucomelas has faintly pigmented dorsum, but the frons and SIPH distinctly have pigmentation. Additionally, the pigmentation of antennae and their ratio and dorsal cuticles with nodules follow the referred description (Pintera 1987).
Distribution
Korea (new record), China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, Europe, Canada, USA, Chile, Africa (Blackman and Eastop 2024).
description: Published as part of Choi, Hwalran, Kim, Yeyeun & Lee, Seunghwan, 2025, Unveiling hidden diversity: new records of Chaitophorus (Hemiptera, Aphididae) in Korea from historical specimens, pp. e 150852 in Biodiversity Data Journal 13 on page e150852, DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.13.e150852