Two European Cornus L. feeding leafmining moths, Antispila petryi Martini, 1899, sp. rev. and A. treitschkiella (Fischer von Röslerstamm, 1843) (Lepidoptera, Heliozelidae): an unjustified synonymy and overlooked range expansion

Antispila treitschkiella (Fischer von Röslerstamm, 1843) and A. petryi Martini, 1899, sp. rev. were regarded as synonymous since 1978, but are shown to be two clearly separated species with different hostplants, life histories, DNA barcodes and morphology. Antispila treitschkiella feeds on Cornus mas L., is bivoltine, and has, by following its ornamentally planted host, greatly expanded its range in north-western Europe. In contrast A. petryi feeds on the widespread native C. sanguinea L., is univoltine, and is one of only two Antispila species previously resident in the British Isles, the Netherlands and northern Europe. Consequently, the increase in abundance of A. treitschkiella in the Netherlands since the early 1990s and in Great Britain in recent years must be regarded as part of a recent expansion into north-western Europe, whereas the native A. petryi is hardly expanding and less abundant. In Britain, detailed surveys of parks and living collections confirmed the monophagy of these two species. A search of British herbarium samples provided no evidence for an earlier date of establishment. Information on recognition of all stages, including DNA barcodes, and distribution is provided, and these two species are compared with the third European Cornus L. leafminer, A. metallella (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775)

A new North American species of Etainia (Lepidoptera, Nepticulidae), feeding on Arbutus and Arctostaphylos species (Ericaceae)

Etainia thoraceleuca van Nieukerken, Epstein & Davis, sp. nov. is the second native American species of Etainia Beirne, 1945, and the second known Etainia species feeding on Ericaceae. The species is known from light-collected adults in the USA (California, Arizona) and Canada (Ontario). These were linked via DNA barcodes to larvae that make short leafmines on Arbutus and Arctostaphylos species, then continue feeding in stems and branches, causing damage in nurseries and planted trees in Sonoma and Marin Counties, California. The holotype was accidentally reared from Arbutus arizonica, without observing the damage. Life history and damage are described in detail. Damage in Arctostaphylos uva-ursi found in Washington State probably belongs to E. thoraceleuca, which is a sister species to the European E. albibimaculella (Larsen, 1927)

Antispila oinophylla new species (Lepidoptera, Heliozelidae), a new North American grapevine leafminer invading Italian vineyards: taxonomy, DNA barcodes and life cycle

A grapevine leafminer Antispila oinophylla van Nieukerken & Wagner, sp. n., is described both from eastern North America (type locality: Georgia) and as a new important invader in North Italian vineyards (Trentino and Veneto Region) since 2006. The species is closely related to, and previously confused with A. ampelopsifoliella Chambers, 1874, a species feeding on Virginia creeper Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L.) Planchon., and both are placed in an informal A. ampelopsifoliella group. Wing pattern, genitalia, and DNA barcode data all confirm the conspecificity of native North American populations and Italian populations. COI barcodes differ by only 0–1.23%, indicating that the Italian populations are recently established from eastern North America. The new species feeds on various wild Vitis species in North America, on cultivated Vitis vinifera L. in Italy, and also on Parthenocissus quinquefolia in Italy. North American Antispila feeding on Parthenocissus include at least two other species, one of which is A. ampelopsifoliella. Morphology and biology of the new species are contrasted with those of North American Antispila Hübner, 1825 species and European Holocacista rivillei (Stainton, 1855). The source population of the introduction is unknown, but cases with larvae or pupae, attached to imported plants, are a likely possibility. DNA barcodes of the three European grapevine leafminers and those of all examined Heliozelidae are highly diagnostic. North American Vitaceae-feeding Antispila form two species complexes and include several as yet unnamed taxa. The identity of three out of the four previously described North American Vitaceae-feeding species cannot be unequivocally determined without further revision, but these are held to be different from A. oinophylla. In Italy the biology of A. oinophylla was studied in a vineyard in the Trento Province (Trentino-Alto Adige Region) in 2008 and 2009. Mature larvae overwinter inside their cases, fixed to vine trunks or training stakes. The first generation flies in June. An additional generation occurs from mid-August onwards. The impact of the pest in this vineyard was significant with more than 90% of leaves infested in midsummer. Since the initial discovery in 2006, the pest spread to several additional Italian provinces, in 2010 the incidence of infestation was locally high in commercial vineyards. Preliminary phylogenetic analyses suggest that Antispila is paraphyletic, and that the Antispila ampelopsifoliella group is related to Coptodisca Walsingham, 1895, Holocacista Walsingham & Durrant, 1909 and Antispilina Hering, 1941, all of which possess reduced wing venation. Vitaceae may be the ancestral hostplant family for modern Heliozelidae

Australian Sphingidae – DNA Barcodes Challenge Current Species Boundaries and Distributions

© 2014 Rougerie et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Wolbachia in butterflies and moths: geographic structure in infection frequency.

INTRODUCTION: Butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) constitute one of the most diverse insect orders, and play an important role in ecosystem function. However, little is known in terms of their bacterial communities. Wolbachia, perhaps the most common and widespread intracellular bacterium on Earth, can manipulate the physiology and reproduction of its hosts, and is transmitted vertically from mother to offspring, or sometimes horizontally between species. While its role in some hosts has been studied extensively, its incidence across Lepidoptera is poorly understood. A recent analysis using a beta-binomial model to infer the between-species distribution of prevalence estimated that approximately 40 % of arthropod species are infected with Wolbachia, but particular taxonomic groups and ecological niches seem to display substantially higher or lower incidences. In this study, we took an initial step and applied a similar, maximum likelihood approach to 300 species of Lepidoptera (7604 individuals from 660 populations) belonging to 17 families and 10 superfamilies, and sampled from 36 countries, representing all continents excluding Antarctica. RESULTS: Approximately a quarter to a third of individuals appear to be infected with Wolbachia, and around 80 % of Lepidoptera species are infected at a non-negligible frequency. This incidence estimate is very high compared to arthropods in general. Wolbachia infection in Lepidoptera is shown to vary between families, but there is no evidence for closely related groups to show similar infection levels. True butterflies (Papilionoidea) are overrepresented in our data, however, our estimates show this group can be taken as a representative for the other major lepidopteran superfamilies. We also show substantial variation in infection level according to geography - closer locations tend to show similar infection levels. We further show that variation in geography is due to a latitudinal gradient in Wolbachia infection, with lower frequencies towards higher latitudes. CONCLUSIONS: Our comprehensive survey of Wolbachia infection in Lepidoptera suggests that infection incidence is very high, and provides evidence that climate and geography are strong predictors of infection frequency.We thank the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History for their continued support. This study was supported by the University of Florida Research Opportunity Seed Fund (ROSF) and the National Science Foundation grant number DEB-1354585 to AYK.This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186%2Fs12983-015-0107-z

Increased gene sampling strengthens support for higher-level groups within leaf-mining moths and relatives (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae)

Background: Researchers conducting molecular phylogenetic studies are frequently faced with the decision of what to do when weak branch support is obtained for key nodes of importance. As one solution, the researcher may choose to sequence additional orthologous genes of appropriate evolutionary rate for the taxa in the study. However, generating large, complete data matrices can become increasingly difficult as the number of characters increases. A few empirical studies have shown that augmenting genes even for a subset of taxa can improve branch support. However, because each study differs in the number of characters and taxa, there is still a need for additional studies that examine whether incomplete sampling designs are likely to aid at increasing deep node resolution. We target Gracillariidae, a Cretaceous-age (similar to 100 Ma) group of leaf-mining moths to test whether the strategy of adding genes for a subset of taxa can improve branch support for deep nodes. We initially sequenced ten genes (8,418 bp) for 57 taxa that represent the major lineages of Gracillariidae plus outgroups. After finding that many deep divergences remained weakly supported, we sequenced eleven additional genes (6,375 bp) for a 27-taxon subset. We then compared results from different data sets to assess whether one sampling design can be favored over another. The concatenated data set comprising all genes and all taxa and three other data sets of different taxon and gene sub-sampling design were analyzed with maximum likelihood. Each data set was subject to five different models and partitioning schemes of non-synonymous and synonymous changes. Statistical significance of non-monophyly was examined with the Approximately Unbiased (AU) test. Results: Partial augmentation of genes led to high support for deep divergences, especially when non-synonymous changes were analyzed alone. Increasing the number of taxa without an increase in number of characters led to lower bootstrap support; increasing the number of characters without increasing the number of taxa generally increased bootstrap support. More than three-quarters of nodes were supported with bootstrap values greater than 80% when all taxa and genes were combined. Gracillariidae, Lithocolletinae + Leucanthiza, and Acrocercops and Parectopa groups were strongly supported in nearly every analysis. Gracillaria group was well supported in some analyses, but less so in others. We find strong evidence for the exclusion of Douglasiidae from Gracillarioidea sensu Davis and Robinson (1998). Our results strongly support the monophyly of a G.B.R.Y. clade, a group comprised of Gracillariidae + Bucculatricidae + Roeslerstammiidae + Yponomeutidae, when analyzed with non-synonymous changes only, but this group was frequently split when synonymous and non-synonymous substitutions were analyzed together. Conclusions: 1) Partially or fully augmenting a data set with more characters increased bootstrap support for particular deep nodes, and this increase was dramatic when non-synonymous changes were analyzed alone. Thus, the addition of sites that have low levels of saturation and compositional heterogeneity can greatly improve results. 2) Gracillarioidea, as defined by Davis and Robinson (1998), clearly do not include Douglasiidae, and changes to current classification will be required. 3) Gracillariidae were monophyletic in all analyses conducted, and nearly all species can be placed into one of six strongly supported clades though relationships among these remain unclear. 4) The difficulty in determining the phylogenetic placement of Bucculatricidae is probably attributable to compositional heterogeneity at the third codon position. From our tests for compositional heterogeneity and strong bootstrap values obtained when synonymous changes are excluded, we tentatively conclude that Bucculatricidae is closely related to Gracillariidae + Roeslerstammiidae + Yponomeutidae