Philodoria alakaiensis Kobayashi, Johns & Kawahara, sp. n.
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 alakaiensis

description: Philodoria alakaiensis Kobayashi, Johns & Kawahara sp. n.
Figs. 14F, 15A–E, 36, 39D, 47E, 48E, 49E, 58F, G.
Philodoria sp. 15; Johns et al. 2018: fig. 2.
Type locality. Alakai (Kauai).
Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the type locality, Alaka’i (pronounced ‘Ala-Kayee’) Wilderness Preserve, also known as Alaka’i Swamp, an important wet forest area for Hawaiian endemic plants.
Type material. Holotype ♂, Alakai, Kauai Is., 9.vii.2015 (stored), C.A. Johns leg., host: Dubautia laxa or D. paleata, 18.vi.2015, CJ473, SK 836 in BPBM. Paratype 7 (3♂, 3♀, 1 sex unknown): 1♂, same data and locality as holotype, CJ 468 in BPBM; 2♂, 2♀, 1 (sex unknown), same data and locality as holotype, 11.vii.2015 (stored), CJ479/SK658♂, SK 659♀, SK660♂, SK 661♀ in BPBM; 1♀, same locality as holotype, 11.vii.2015 (stored), 18.vi.2015, host: Dubautia laxa or D. paleata, CJ 481/SK 864♀, SK870 (SEM) in BPBM; 1♂, Kauai, 4520’, Alakai Swamp, Kelekua Hut, 13.ix.1973, K. & E. Sattler, B.M.1973-498, Philodoria sp. 30 cf nigrelloides, Colour slides 133-4, 139 Pl. 3 Fig. 5 Zimmerman 1978a Sattler Coll., D.C. Lees Sep. 2016, BMNH(E) 1621107 in NHMUK; 1♀, Kauai, 4520’, Alakai Swamp, Kelekua Hut, 5.vii.1973, K. & E. Sattler, B.M.1982-342, Philodoria sp. 28, Sattler Coll., D.C. Lees, Sep. 2016, BMNH(E) 1621109 in NHMUK. The holotype was mounted as a dry pinned specimen with its four wings placed without mountant under a coverslip: forewings slightly damaged at base, basal 2/3 of hindwings broken.
Diagnosis. Dark brownish forewings with four outwardly oblique white streaks: two dorsal ones and two slender costal ones (Figs. 14F, 15A–E). Differs from other Philodoria species in having two costal streaks, but lacks a ds 1 and a short cs 1 in the forewing; valva slender and slightly rounded apically. An Alakai species, P. nigrelloides (Swezey) (male unknown, feeding on Dubautia) differs from the new species in lacking the cs 1 and having a tubular antrum (Zimmerman 1978a: fig. 459).
Description: Adult (Figs. 14F, 15A–E, 36). Forewing length 3.8–3.9 mm in holotype, 3.3–3.9 mm in paratype. Head dark brown; frons white; maxillary palpus white; labial palpus white but with dark brown scales below at apex (Fig. 36); antenna dark brown, white beneath, about 1.1x length of forewing. Thorax brown. Forewing brown to dark brown with outwardly oblique white streaks that are found at: cs 2 short one at about 1/2, cs 3 slender at 3/4; ds 1 very small at base along the dorsum; ds 2 large at 1/3; ds 3 at 3/4; some fuscous scales scattering from 1/2 to 3/4; apical portion orangish brown; three white costal spots (a, b, c) near apex; a spot of bluish scales at apex (as) and a few bluish scales in a more or less fuscous patch between apex and end of ds 3; cilia fuscous with two white spot at termen; bl 1 black from termen to tornus, fuscous fringe at tornus. Hindwing and cilia fuscous. Legs pale fuscous with dark brown scales.
Male genitalia (Fig. 39D, 47E, 48E, 49E) (n=2). Capsule 800 µm. Tegumen 0.7–0.8 x length of valva; valva 590 µm long, tapering along costal margin from base 2/5–1/2 to apex, slightly rounded at apex and narrowing once at middle; a series of small spines arranged, along the inner side of valva (Fig. 47E). Saccus triangular in ventral view (Fig. 48E). Phallus 550 µm long, rounded at phallobase with developed coecum; two series of spiny minute cornuti in vesica (Fig. 49E).
Female genitalia (Fig. 58F, G) (n=3). 1280 µm long. Ostium bursae large; antrum low, cup-shaped with a slender pair of lateral lobes; lamella antevaginalis 210 µm, weakly sclerotized, trapezoid in ventral view, slightly inflexed on the posterior margin, widening toward anterior margin of A7. Ductus bursae 400–450 µm; terminus of ductus bursae biforked. Corpus bursae 690–700 µm, oblong with paired rows of wrinkles running longitudinally, some sclerotized.
Distribution. Kauai.
Host plants. Asteraceae: Dubautia sp. (D. laxa or D. paleata). Several species of Dubautia co-occur in the Alakai swamp area and it is unclear whether the specimens found by N. Tangalin were on Dubautia laxa or D. paleata. These mines were very abundant during our surveys in the summer of 2015.
Biology. The larva mines fresh fuzzy leaves.
Parasitoids. Braconidae sp.? (Fig. 105A–L).
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 68-71, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4944.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4681813