Plutella hyperboreella Strand, 1902 (Plutellidae)

Landry, Jean-François, Nazari, Vazrick, Dewaard, Jeremy R., Mutanen, Marko, Lopez-Vaamonde, Carlos, Huemer, Peter & Hebert, Paul D. N., 2013, Shared but overlooked: 30 species of Holarctic Microlepidoptera revealed by DNA barcodes and morphology, Zootaxa 3749 (1), pp. 1-93 : 21

11. Plutella hyperboreella Strand, 1902 (Plutellidae)

Plutella hyperboreella Strand, 1902: 63 . Type locality: Norway: Alta , Kåfjord.

BOLD:AAC3387

Palearctic distribution. Northern Europe and Arctic Russia .

New North American records. Canada: Nunavut, Sirmilik National Park , 12 Jul 2007, 1 ♂ ; 13 Jul 2007, 3 ♂, 1 ♀ ; 18 Jul 2007, 2 ♂, 1 ♀; 29 Jul 2007, 1 ♂ ( CNC) . The nine barcoded specimens are from Bylot Island at the northern tip of Baffin Island, high above the Arctic Circle. They were collected in mid-July on and around flowers during day time. The CNC also contains several older records from the Canadian Arctic ( Baffin Island , Banks Island , Northwest Territories, as well as the high boreal Schefferville , Québec) , collected between 1935 and 1968, which were previously unidentified among protem material. They were not barcoded, but examination of genitalia confirmed their conspecificity.

Diagnosis. Externally, hyperboreella has the forewing predominantly pale grey brown with hints of pale yellow and a dirty white, wavy band along the hind (dorsal) margin somewhat akin to that of xylostella (L.) but dotted with dark brown along the margin; the head and dorsum of thorax are mostly grey brown (white to pale yellow in xylostella). The male genitalia are similar to those of other species of Palearctic Plutella (Plutelloptera) , with small differences in shape and proportions of the socii, vinculum, and valvae; but are distinctive among Nearctic plutellids. (The male genitalia were mounted laterally for better comparison with the figures in Baraniak (2007)) The female genitalia are also distinctive with the corpus bursae with an accessory bulla seminalis and lack of signum. It is the only known representative of the genus in the high North American Arctic.

Larval host. Arabis alpina and Draba spp. (Brassicaceae) in Europe. The questionable report of Ribes (Grossulariaceae) as a probable host in northern Europe ( Baraniak 2007) is puzzling because, if true, it would represent an exceptional case of oligophagy across plant orders within Plutella . Most species are restricted to a single plant family ( Brassicaceae ) or even a single host genus within this family.

Note. Baraniak (2007) proposed the new genus Plutelloptera for this and six other Palearctic species of Plutella ; although supported by a phylogenetic analysis, the characters used to define this and two other genera ( Plutella , Pseudoplutella ) were minor and the study only examined Palearctic species. No European authors have adopted these genera. Fauna Europaea (2012) treats Plutelloptera and Pseudoplutella as subgenera of Plutella , but we are not aware of a publication where this change in rank was formalized.