Micrurapteryx caraganella ( Hering, 1957 )

Kirichenko, Natalia, Triberti, Paolo, Akulov, Evgeniy, Ponomarenko, Margarita, Gorokhova, Svetlana, Sheiko, Viktor, Ohshima, Issei & Lopez-Vaamonde, Carlos, 2019, Exploring species diversity and host plant associations of leaf-mining micromoths (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) in the Russian Far East using DNA barcoding, Zootaxa 4652 (1), pp. 1-55 : 15

Micrurapteryx caraganella ( Hering, 1957)

( Figs 5A , 10 A–B)

Material examined. Russia: AO, Skovorodino , 53.98N, 123.93E, 431 m alt., Caragana arborescens , 26. VI .2016, 4 pupae, 2 adults (reared from leaf mines), 1 male / genitalia slide [38-male], 1 female / [39-female] ( Fig. 5A ), deposited in SIF .

Leaf mine. Flat whitish green blotch, slightly branched, on the upper side of the leaflet above the midrib, often occupies entire leaflet ( Fig. 10A ); starts as a relatively long narrow epidermal tunnel on the lower surface of the leaflet ( Fig. 10B ). Hardly any frass is accumulated in the blotch part of the mine as the larva regularly ejects frass pellets from the mine protruding rear part of the body through a small slit on the underside of leaflet. When most of parenchyma is eaten out, the larva vacates the mine and creates a new one on the same or a neighboring leaf. Vacated mine soon turns brownish, the epidermis covering mine cracks and gets loose. Pupation on the lower surface of a leaflet (occasionally on the upper side), in a transparent glossy cocoon ( Fig. 10B ).

Trophic specialization. Oligophagous on Fabaceae : Caragana arborescens , C. frutex , C. boisii , Medicago sativa (Kirichenko et al. 2016) .

Distribution. Russia: RFE—AO ( Kirichenko et al. 2017b), southern Siberia (Kirichenko et al. 2016); European part ( Kozlov et al. 2017).

Remarks: In early literature, the species was confused with M. gradatella (Herrich-Schäffer) , which feeds on other Fabaceae : Lathyrus and Vicia and has distinctive characters in male genitalia (see literature revision and the species diagnosis in Kirichenko et al. (2016)). In 2016, numerous mines of M. caraganella were documented on C. arborescens in Scovorodino , AO ( Kirichenko et al. 2017b).

Figures

FIGURE 5. Female genitalia of gracillariids sampled in the Russian Far East. (A) Micrurapteryx caraganella, host plant Caragana arborescens, Skovorodino, Amurskaya Oblast, 26.VI.2016; genitalia slide [39-female]; (B) Phyllonorycter nipponicella, Quercus mongolica, PK, Gornotaezhnoe, 23.VII.2016, [8-2016-female]. Scale bars: (A) 550, (B) 100 µm.

FIGURE 10. Mines, leaf shelters and pupation sites of Micrurapteryx and Caloptilia spp. from the Russian Far East. (A–B) Micrurapteryx caraganella, host plant Caragana arborescens; (C) M. gradatella, Vicia sp.; (D) Caloptilia acericola, Acer pseudosieboldianum; (E) C. alni, Alnus hirsuta; (F) C. betulicola, Betula platyphylla; (G) C. heringi, A. pictum; (H) C. stigmatella, Salix sp. Indications: (m) mine; (t) epidermal tunnel; (p) pupation site; (f) folded leaf margin or leaf tip; (r 1 –r 2) rolled leaf margin or leaf tip (the indexes 1 and 2 indicate the order of construction appearance); *mine of Diptera. Close up: (C, G, H) mine. Sampling locations: (A–C) AO, Skovorodino, 26.VI.2016; (D) PK, Gornotaezhnoe, MTS and forest, 22–27.VII.2016; (E–H) SO, Sakhalin Isl., Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 11–20.VII.2017.