Philodoria neraudicola
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 neraudicola

description: Philodoria neraudicola (Swezey, 1920)
Figs. 19A, B, 27I, J, 50A, B, 51A, 52A, 59A, B, 85E, 86C.
Gracilaria neraudicola Swezey, 1920 b: 385–386.
Parectopa neraudicola (Swezey, 1920); Swezy 1928: 191.
Philodoria neraudicola (Swezey, 1920); Zimmerman 1978a: 689, fig. 444.
Type locality. Punaluu (Oahu).
Type material. Lectotype ♂, Punaluu, Oahu, 11.vi.1916, Coll. O.H.S. (= O.H. Swezey), ex Neraudia [melastomifalia], | Gracilaria neraudicola Swezey | Holotype | Type no. 4261 in BPBM (here designated). Paralectotype 5 (1♂, 1♀, 3 sex unknown): Host N. melastomifalia, | Paratype | O.H. Swezey: 1 (sex unknown), same data and locality as lectotype, missing abdomen, BPBM 34243; 1♂, 1♀, 2 (sex unknown), Waiahole, Oahu, 13.viii.1916, SK 708♀ | BPBM 34244, BPBM 34245, BPBM 34246, and 1♂, SK707♂ in USNM. Described from six specimens from Oahu. The holotype was not specified in the original description, therefore the so-labeled ‘holotype’ and ‘paratypes’ can be considered syntypes under Article 73.2 of the Code (ICZN 1999), and any of them is eligible for designation as lectotype under Article 74 of the Code (ICZN 1999). The syntype ‘holotype’ is here designated as lectotype (Fig. 19A) and the remaining syntypes are paralectotypes.
Additional material. 3 (sex unknown), Kamiloloa, Mol., 3200, 20.xii.1925, O.H. Swezey, Pipturus, BPBM 34247, BPBM 34249, BPBM 34250; 4♀, Iao Valley, Maui, 9& 10.viii.2014 (stored), C.A. Johns leg., host: Pipturus albidus, 28.vii.2014, CJ336, SK 838♀ in BPBM; 1♀ 1 (sex unknown), Same locality, 10& 12.viii.2014 (stored), C.A. Johns leg., host: Pipturus sp., CJ360, CJ 369 in BPBM.
Diagnosis. The forewing pattern is similar to P. hesperomanniella sp. n. and P. urerana (Swezey), but P. neraudicola has an orangish ocherous apical region; the saccus is slender and pointed. Swezey (1920) noted that a series of five specimens reared from leaves of Pipturus albidus at Pahoa, Puna on the island of Hawaii (Big Island), September 20, 1918 seems to be the same species. However, the five syntypes from Swezey (1920) have distinguishable forewing pattern from that of P. neraudicola, and therefore we treat them here as new species, P. obamaorum sp. n. (See diagnosis of P. obamaorum).
Redescription: Adult (Fig. 19A, B). Wingspan 6.5–8.1 mm in type series; forewing length 3.75 mm in lectotype, 2.9–3.8 mm in paralectotype. Head creamy white; frons white; maxillary palpus white mixed with fuscous scales; labial palpus white, median joint fuscous at apex, terminal joint with fuscous band at middle and at apex. Antenna brownish, basal segment pale. Thorax brownish fuscous, pale in middle and posteriorly. Forewing brownish fuscous, with three outwardly-oblique white dorsal streaks (ds 1–3) widened at base and margined with a few black scales, somewhat curved apically, the ds 3 nearly connected with a white slender outwardly-oblique blackmargined line (cs 1) at three-fourths of costa, beyond this white line, three or four white costal spots (a, b, c); a round black spot at apex with a few pale blue scales, a few pale blue scales between this spot and the ds 3, sometimes this area ocherous; apical and terminal cilia brown, paler near base and black bl 1 at extreme base, tornal cilia- very pale brown. Hindwing and cilia pale brown. Abdomen pale brownish. Legs ocherous, anterior and middle tibiae and tarsi and posterior tarsi fuscous marked.
Male genitalia (Figs. 50A, B, 51A, 52A) (n=1). Capsule 780 µm. Tegumen 0.9 x length of valva; valva 540 µm long, tapering along costal margin from 2/5 to apex, slightly narrowing at middle with small spines at apex; a set of short spines arranged along inner side of basal region (Fig. 50A, B). Saccus slender and pointed at apex in ventral view (Fig. 51A). Phallus 570 µm long and thickened at phallobase with well-developed coecum; two series of minute cornuti in vesica (Fig. 52A).
Female genitalia (Fig. 59A, B) (n=2). 1100–1200 µm long. Ostium bursae large; antrum cup-shaped with a pair of lateral lobes; lamella antevaginalis 220 µm, weakly sclerotized, trapezoid in ventral view, widening toward anterior margin of A7. Ductus bursae slender, middle region weakly sclerotized, round and flat; terminus of ductus bursae tubular, biforked. Corpus bursae 670 µm, oblong; signa a pair of longitudinal, partly sclerotized wrinkles.
Distribution. Molokai (Zimmerman 1978a), Oahu (Swezey 1920), Maui: new record and possibly Kauai.
Host plants. Urticaceae: Neraudia melastomifolia Gaudich. (Swezey 1920), Pipturus albidus A.Gray ex H.Mann and Pipturus sp.
Biology. (Figs. 85E, 86C) Little is known about its biology. The larva on Pipturus form a blotch mine on the adaxial leaf surface that gathers the frass in the center (Fig. 85E); numerous mines and cocoons per leaf; pupation occurs in a brownish-white cocoon outside of the mine, which is usually on the adaxial leaf surface (Fig. 86C).
Parasitoids. Eulophidae: Euderus metallicus (Ashmead, 1901), Pnigalio externa (Timberlake, 1927); (Zimmerman 1978a).
Remarks. We could not locate the Kauai specimens and therefore the record from Kauai cannot be confirmed. Leaf mines on Pipturus in Iao Valley along Iao Stream were abundant during our survey in 2014. We also collected similar blotch mines (Fig. 86B) and tortuous linear to blotch mines (Fig. 85C, D) on West Maui and Hawaii (Big Island). Unfortunately, adults did not emerge, but these mines may be from larvae of P. floscula or P. haelaauensis sp. n. The host plant genus Neraudia has become exceedingly rare on the Hawaiian Islands with several species being listed as endangered. We were able to locate fewer than ten plants of N. melastomifolia throughout our surveys. None of these plants showed signs of leaf mine activity. However, surveys of Neraudia herbarium specimens (BPBM) revealed Philodoria leaf mines on several 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 85-86, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4944.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4681813