DOI: 10.5061/dryad.kk0n9
title: Data from: Discovery of an unknown diversity of Leucinodes species damaging Solanaceae fruits in sub-Saharan Africa and moving in trade (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Pyraloidea)

description: The larvae of the Old World genera Leucinodes Guenée, 1854 and Sceliodes
 Guenée, 1854 are internal feeders in the fruits of Solanaceae, causing
 economic damage to cultivated plants like Solanum melongena and S.
 aethiopicum. In sub-Saharan Africa five nominal species of Leucinodes and
 one of Sceliodes occur. One of these species, the eggplant fruit and shoot
 borer L. orbonalis Guenée, 1854, is regarded as regularly intercepted from
 Africa and Asia in Europe, North and South America and is therefore a
 quarantine pest on these continents. We investigate the taxonomy of
 African Leucinodes and Sceliodes based on morphological characters in wing
 pattern, genitalia and larvae, as well as mitochondrial DNA, providing
 these data for identification of all life stages. The results suggest that
 both genera are congeneric, with Sceliodes syn. n. established as junior
 subjective synonym of Leucinodes. L. orbonalis is described from Asia and
 none of the samples investigated from Africa belong to this species.
 Instead, sub-Saharan Africa harbours a complex of eight endemic Leucinodes
 species. Among the former nominal species of Leucinodes (and Sceliodes)
 from Africa, only L. laisalis (Walker, 1859), comb. n. (Sceliodes) is
 confirmed, with Leucinodes translucidalis Gaede, 1917, syn. n. as a junior
 subjective synonym. The other African Leucinodes species were unknown to
 science and are described as new: L. africensis sp. n., L. ethiopica sp.
 n., L. kenyensis sp. n., L. malawiensis sp. n., L. pseudorbonalis sp. n.,
 L. rimavallis sp. n. and L. ugandensis sp. n. An identification key based
 on male genitalia is provided for the African Leucinodes species. Most
 imports of Leucinodes specimens from Africa into Europe refer to
 Leucinodes africensis, which has been frequently imported with fruits
 during the last 50 years. In contrast, L. laisalis has been much less
 frequently recorded, and L. pseudorbonalis as well as L. rimavallis only
 very recently in fruit imports from Uganda. Accordingly, interceptions of
 Leucinodes from Africa into other continents will need to be
 re-investigated for their species identity and will likely require, at
 least in parts, revisions of the quarantine regulations. The following
 African taxa are excluded from Leucinodes: Hyperanalyta Strand, 1918, syn.
 rev. as revised synonym of Analyta Lederer, 1863; Analyta apicalis
 (Hampson, 1896), comb. n. (Leucinodes); Lygropia aureomarginalis (Gaede,
 1916), comb. n. (Leucinodes); Syllepte hemichionalis Mabille, 1900, comb.
 rev., S. hemichionalis idalis Viette, 1958, comb. rev. and S. vagans
 (Tutt, 1890), comb. n. (Aphytoceros). Deanolis iriocapna (Meyrick, 1938),
 comb. n. from Indonesia is originally described and misplaced in
 Sceliodes, and L. cordalis (Doubleday, 1843), comb. n. (Margaritia) from
 New Zealand, L. raondry (Viette, 1981), comb. n. (Daraba) from Madagascar
 as well as L. grisealis (Kenrick, 1912), comb. n. (Sceliodes) from New
 Guinea are transferred from Sceliodes to Leucinodes. While Leucinodes is
 now revised from Africa, it still needs further revision in Asia.
description: Specimens intercepted in
 Great Britain by FERAOverview of Leucinodes
 and Neoleucinodes specimens intercepted in Great Britain by the Food and
 Environment Research Agency and investigated in context of this
 publicationAppendix 1_specimens
 intercepted in Great Britain by
 FERA_10-Dec-2014.docxOverview of barcoded
 specimensOverview of the
 specimens that have been DNA barcoded for this publication, including
 voucher numbers, sequence accession numbers and GenSeq
 nomenclatureAppendix 2_Overview of barcoded
 specimens.docx