Parornix sinensis Liu, 2021

Liu, Tengteng, Wang, Encui, Jiang, Yurong, Jiang, Zhongfeng, Jiang, Bin & Teng, Kaijiang, 2021, First report of the leaf-mining genus Parornix Spuler from China, with descriptions of two new species (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae, Parornichinae), Zootaxa 4948 (1), pp. 136-148 : 141-144

Parornix sinensis Liu , sp. n.

‡AEẊḋffi [Chinese name]

( Figs 2, 3 , 6, 6a, 8 , 10 ̅14)

Diagnosis. The new species resembles Parornix turcmeniella Kuznetzov, 1956 that also feeds on Amygdalus , but can be separated from the latter by: i) the valva shorter than the length of vinculum + saccus, ii) the absence of a projection on the sacculus and iii) the S-hooked and pointed posterior processes of the anellus; in P. turcmeniella , the valva is longer than the length of vinculum + saccus, a projection is present on the sacculus, and the posterior processes of the anellus are straight ( Triberti 1982: 39, Fig. 4 ; Kuznetzov & Baryshnikova 2003: 121 , Fig. 10 ). The Maximum Likelihood tree based on available DNA barcodes corroborates the newly described species ( Fig. 1 ). The lowest pairwise genetic distance is 7.7% between the new species and all the other species ( Table S1 ).

Type material. Holotype, ³, CHINA: Shandong Province: Mt. Fohui, Jinan , 36.639°N, 117.061°E, 200 m, 2017.v.8, leafmine and pupa hidden in curved leaf tip collected on Amygdalus davidiana , emerged 2017.v.18, leg. Tengteng Liu, field no. JN170502, DNA voucher and genitalia slide no. SDNU.LIU0005³, registration no. SDNU. Ent 001443.

Paratypes (all China): 1♀, same collecting data as holotype, genitalia slide no. JYR17051 ♀, registration no. SDNU.Ent001442; 1♀, 2017.ix, 36.634°N, 117.055°E, locality and collector same as holotype, field no. JN170901 , registration no. SDNU.Ent001444; 2♀, Mt. Yunmen, Weifang , Shandong, 36.655°N, 118.472°E, 200 m, 2018. v.10, leafmines collected on Amygdalus davidiana , leg. Tengteng Liu, field nos. LIU00005.1–2, genitalia slide nos. LIU0228, WEC19033 , registration nos. SDNU.Ent001211, SDNU.Ent001441.

Adult ( Figs 2, 3 ). Head tuft grayish white, mixed with black. Maxillary palpi white, with scattered brown scales on outer surface. Labial palpi white, dark brown on second segment laterally and on middle part of third segment. Antennae with scape white ventrally and dark brown dorsally, flagellum yellowish white with dark brown rings. Thorax dorsally white. Tegula dark gray basally, white distally. Forewing dark gray, with scattered white scales; with about 15 white striae along costa, very indistinct on the basal half; areas between wing fold and dorsum lighter, two black suffusions, one below and one on fold, the latter larger; apex with a black dot; cilia white on basal half, two black lines on distal half. Hindwing and cilia light brown.

Male genitalia ( Figs 6, 6a ). Tegumen weakly sclerotized, glabrous. Tuba analis membranous, extending beyond tegumen. Valva shorter than length of vinculum, basal 1/3 narrowed with a small oblique ridge extending from middle to ventral margin ( Fig. 6a ), then widening towards cucullus, the latter covered with dense long setae. Vinculum Y-shaped with parallel sides, anterior process about 1/3 length of valva. Phallus arcuate with the overall curvature almost 90 o, one tooth-like process on apex, two longer lateral ones below on outer wall, cornutus a sharp pointed needle; process from base of phallus about 1/5 length of phallus; anellus developed, with apex of posterior process S-hooked and pointed. Eighth sternite rectangular, a small concavity in the middle of posterior margin.

Female genitalia ( Fig. 8 ). Papillae anales with two acute projections antero-ventrally. Apophyses posteriores a bit longer than apophyses anteriores. Eighth segment about 1/3 length of papillae anales, intersegmental membrane between papillae anales reduced. Ostium bursae as wide as half width of posterior margin of seventh sternite; antrum funnel-shaped. Ductus bursae strongly sclerotized on basal 4/5, often curved twice in situ, then keep in same width towards membranous part, distal 1/5 membranous and wrinkled, constricted before corpus bursae; ductus seminalis originated from the dorsal membranous part of first curve. Corpus bursae membranous, with two rutted signa.

Biology. The larva mines in early instars on the underside of the leaf ( Fig. 11 ), forming a tentiform mine (somewhat similar to Phyllonorycter Hübner, 1822 ) between secondary veins, often along leaf margin ( Fig. 12 ). The mine can be easily spotted by its whitish appearance on the upper side of the leaf and slightly deformed leaf lamina in the damaged area. After vacating the mine, the larva lives as a leaf-roller on the same or neighboring leaf, by rolling the leaf tip inside which it lives until pupation ( Figs 13, 14 ). The larva rolls only one leaf during its life span. This species is one of the earliest leaf-mining moths occurring in Shandong in spring being bivoltine with the first generation in early May, and the second in September. This species may overwinter by adult as emergence still occurs in fall.

Host plant. Amygdalus davidiana (Carr.) C. de Vos (Rosaceae) ( Fig. 10 ). The Plant List website treats A. davidiana as a junior synonym of Prunus davidiana (Carr.) Franch on the lowest confidence level. The scientific name of the host plant follows the Plant Plus of China (http://www.iplant.cn/).

DNA barcode. The DNA barcode of the holotype was generated and deposited in BOLD , creating a BIN number BOLD: ADT3365 .

Distribution. China (Shandong).

Etymology. We use the country name for naming the species to indicate that it is the first formally named species of the genus in China. The generic name of the host plant was not selected for this purpose, as it was occupied by P. amygdalella Kuznetzov, 1978 , although the latter was synonymized with P. szoecsi ( Gozmány, 1952) by Triberti (1982).

Figures

FIGURE 1. A Maximum Likelihood tree generated with the K2P nucleotide substitution model based on 650 bp COI barcode sequences. Each sequence is labelled by a combination of its Process ID, Latin name, Sample ID and Country. The sequences of the new species are also labelled by adding “Holotype” or “Paratype”. Branch lengths are proportional to the number of substitutions per site. The percentage of trees in which the associated taxa clustered together is shown next to the branches.

FIGURES 2–5. Adults of Parornix spp. 2̅3, P. sinensis sp. n.: 2, male, holotype, registration no. SDNU.Ent001443; 3, female, paratype, registration no. SDNU.Ent001211; 4̅5, P. yuliella sp. n.: 4, male, paratype, registration no. SDNU.Ent012597; 5, female, paratype, registration no. SDNU.Ent170187.

FIGURES 6–9. Genitalia of Parornix spp. 6̅7, male genitalia (ventral view): 6, P. sinensis sp. n., holotype, 6a, close-up of the ridge, slide no. SDNU.LIU0005; 7, P. yuliella sp. n., 7a, close-up of the ridge with teeth, slide no. SDNU.JYR17056, noticing that the right valva in the figure turned 180o during mounting making the ridge look like on dorsal margin. 8̅9, female genitalia (ventral view): 8, P. sinensis sp. n., paratype, slide no. SDNU.LIU0228, white arrow indicating the opening of ductus seminalis; 9, P. yuliella sp. n., paratype, slide no. SDNU.LIU0026, 9a, close-up of ostium showing the sharply triangular process, slide no. SDNU.LIU0229.

FIGURES 10–14. Biology of P. sinensis sp. n. 10, host plant Amygdalus davidiana, the tree from which the paratypes in Weifang were collected; 11, an active mine between two secondary veins, lower side view; 12, two vacated mines along the leaf margin, upper side view; 13, the identical mine to the lower one in fig. 12, under side view, and rolled leaf tip; 14, pupal exuvium protruding from the leaf roll. Arrows indicate the mines (12, 13), and rolled leaf tip (13).