Philodoria keahii 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 keahii

description: Philodoria keahii Kobayashi, Johns & Kawahara, sp. n.
Figs. 20D–F, 50G, 51E, 52E, 59H, 91H, I.
Philodoria sp. 13; Johns et al. 2018: fig. 2.
Type locality. Kauaula (Maui).
Etymology. The specific epithet, keahii is named after Keahi Bustamente, a native Hawaiian and plant and invertebrate conservation biologist that discovered a larva of this moth feeding on its host plant.
Type material. Holotype ♂, Kauaula, Maui, 17.viii.2014 (stored), C.A. Johns leg., host: Remya mauiensis, 31.vii.2014, CJ380 / SK758♂ in BPBM. Paratype 2♀, same locality and data as holotype, 9& 16.viii.2014 (stored), CJ332 / SK 756♀, CJ377 / SK 757♀ in BPBM. The holotype mounted as a dry pinned specimen with three wings placed under a coverslip without mountant (1/2 of right forewing and 2/3 of two hindwings).
Diagnosis. The forewing pattern is similar to that of P. pittosporella (Swezey), but it is distinguished by its forewing which has a fuscous patch at 3/4 and rather narrowing dorsal streaks (Fig. 20F). Genitalia similar to that of P. touchardiella (Swezey), but it is distinguished from the latter by its short tegumen and saccus.
Description: Adult (Fig. 20D–F). Forewing length 2.4 mm in holotype, 2.7, 3.0 mm in two paratypes. Head and frons white; maxillary palpus white with dark brown scales at apex; labial palpus white with dark brown scales at apx. Antenna dark brown, bellow white about 3.0 mm long in holotype, 4.0 mm in paratype (SK757). Thorax brown. Forewing ocherous with three outwardly oblique white streaks: ds 2 at about 1/2, ds 3 at 2/3; a white band from base to 1/2 along dorsal margin, connecting ds 2; cs 3 at 4/5; apical portion pale orangish brown with three costal white lines (a, b, c) at apical cilia; a fuscous spot at apex (as); a fuscous patch at 3/4; cilia fuscous, bl 1 of terminal cilia orangish brown, tornal cilia interruputed with a white line. Hindwing and cilia grayish fuscous.
Male genitalia (Figs. 50G, 51E, 52E) (n=1). Capsule 570 µm. Tegumen 0.7–0.8 x length of valva; valva 430 µm long, tapering along costal margin from basal 2/5 to apex, slightly narrowing at 2/3 and rounded at apex (Fig. 50G). Saccus short and triangular in ventral view (Fig. 51E). Phallus 460 µm long and nearly straight, slightly widening at phallobase with small coecum; cornuti in vesica indistinct (Fig. 52E).
Female genitalia (Fig. 59H) (n=2). 1200 µm long. Ostium bursae large; antrum cup-shaped with a pair of broad lateral lobes; lamella antevaginalis 130–140 µm, weakly sclerotized, slightly indented near the posterior margin, 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 610 µm, pyriform; anterior end of corpus bursae weakly sclerotized; paired rows of longitudinal, partly sclerotized wrinkles.
Distribution. Maui.
Host plants. Asteraceae: Remya mauiensis Hillebr, a plant species known only from Maui (Fig. 69A, B).
Biology. (Fig. 91H, I). Larvae at first form a very slender linear mine (Fig. 91I), that gradually becomes an elongate blotch mine (Fig. 91H). One mine per leaf. Pupation occurs in the white cocoon outside of the mine on the abaxial leaf surface (Fig. 91H). Mines are very difficult to find and appear rare. When we visited the plant population in Ulupalakua Ranch in July 2014, we found less than 10 mines that were active or inactive after searching more than 50 plants.
Remarks. There is another population of Remya further east of Kauaula, but we did not investigate these plants. We also investigated outplanted individuals of R. montgomeryi and wild individuals of R. kauaiensis on Kauai Island (both species are endangered), but did not find any signs of Philodoria mines.
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 page 96, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4944.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4681813