Phyllonorycter, Hübner, 1822

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 : 31

Phyllonorycter sp. 4

Material examined. Russia: SO, Sakhalin Island, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Gagarin Park , 46.96N, 142.75E, 69 m alt., Alnus hirsuta , 11.VII.2017, 1 larva, NK618 , MK 403695 , deposited in INRA.

Leaf mine. The mine is similar to Ph. strigulatella and was found on the same trees. Pupation in the mine.

Trophic specialization. Monophagous on Alnus hirsuta (Betulaceae) .

Distribution. Russia: RFE—PK.

Remarks. BIN of unknown species—BOLD: ADM1303. In East Asia, eight Phyllonorycter species develop on Alnus , among which five species, besides other hosts, feed on Alnus hirsuta : Ph. hancola (Kumata) , Ph. kisoensis Kumata et Park , Ph. longispinata (Kumata) , Ph. maculata (Kumata) , Ph. strigulatella (Zeller) ( De Prins & De Prins 2018) . The three other species develop on other alder in East Asia: Ph. ermani (Kumata) (host plant: Alnus maximowiczii , however the main host is Betula ), Ph. fruticosella (Kuznetzov) ( A. viridis ), Ph. takagii (Kumata) ( A. japonica ). From this list of Alnus -feeding species, only Ph. strigulatella has been barcoded and it shows 3.9% genetic distance from Phyllonorycter sp. 4 ( Table 2 ). Our specimen could be one of these four species— Ph. hancola , Ph. kisoensis , Ph. longispinata , or Ph. maculata .