Paratischeria Diškus & Stonis, 2017

Stonis, Jonas R., Diškus, Arūnas, Remeikis, Andrius, Orlovskytė, Svetlana, Solis, Alma, Paulavičiūtė, Brigita, Xu, Jiasheng & Dai, Xiaohua, 2023, Genera of Tischeriidae (Lepidoptera): a review of the global fauna, with descriptions of new taxa, Zootaxa 5333 (1), pp. 1-131 : 94-96

9. Genus Paratischeria Diškus & Stonis, 2017

( Figs 411–416 )

Paratischeria Diškus & Stonis, 2017: 4 . Type species: Paratischeria ferruginea Diškus & Stonis, 2017: 8–19 .

Diagnosis. In the male genitalia, species of Paratischeria are characterized by the presence of a dorsal plate (sclerite) and anellus, as well as a very long basal process of the valva; phallus is usually expanded (with lateral projections) basally. In the female genitalia, the genus is characterized by large ovipositor lobes, small, indistinctive lateral lobes, and a longitudinally folded membrane between inner prela. Leaf mines of Paratischeria are irregular blotch-like, sometimes with short, relatively wide lateral galleries. Larvae feed on Urticaceae host plants but one South-South East Asian species, P. hestias (Meyrick) , is recorded feeding on Helicteres spp. , Malvaceae ; a nidus is usually not round but elongated or irregular, often indistinctive.

External characters of the adults and wing venation characters are not informative and, therefore, insufficient for the differentiation of Neotischeria because of their general uniformity or, in some cases, variability of these characters within the entire family; however, at least some species are characterized by a bright ochre spot or ochre fascia for the forewing.

Notes. In our cladograms, Paratischeria appeared as a separate clade. Depending on the outgroup, it is either the sister taxon to the large cluster of (Pafazaria + Neotischeria ) + (Astrotischeria + Gnathitischeria ) ( Figs 63, 64 ), or Paratischeria is the sister taxon to Astrotischeria ( Fig. 62 ). Both cases do not conflict with the morphological data.

Adult. Head: frontal tuft overlapping the frons, comprised of long, slender lamellar scales; pecten distinctive; collar distinctly paired, comprised of slender lamellar scales. Forewing varies from unicolourous to sparsely speckled with dark scales apically and along costal and dorsal margins; South American species are known possessing a distinctive bright ochre spot or bright ochre fascia. Hindwing slender, androconia absent.

Male genitalia. Uncus always with two very long, usually slender, sometimes wide lateral lobes. Socii membranous, medium small, distinctly spinose, clearly paired (sometimes well-separated), only occasionally, in P. hestias , weakly paired. Tegumen long or moderately long, without a frame-like thickening, however, at least a couple of Asian species with thickened projections in corners laterally; diaphragm without spines; pseudognathos absent; dorsally to valvae, there is a distinctive but variously developed dorsal lobe (previously named the dorsal sclerite) ( Stonis et al. 2017, 2021a). Valva slender to moderately wide, sometimes with a basal lobe; basal process of valva unusually very long. Transtilla and juxta absent. Anellus membranous, caudally slightly angular, bilobed, laterally with a few lateral chetae. Vinculum usually long or medium long, with a widely rounded triangular (occasionally band-like) ventral plate. Phallus slender, rod-like, basally usually expanded (with lateral projections at the base), apically divided, with two-four spines or without, rarely apically complex, additionally with four slender lateral lobes.

Female genitalia. Ovipositor lobes large to very large; the gap between ovipositor lobes wide; second pair of ovipositor lobes usually two–three times smaller in comparison to main ovipositor lobes; lateral lobes short, indistinctive.Anterior apophyses often almost equal in length with posterior apophyses, or slightly shorter, or longer. Prela with three pairs of relatively long rod-like projections; membrane between inner prela longitudinally folded; caudal sclerite with a distinctive slender and pointed caudal spine, otherwise, indistinctive, weakly thickened. Antrum absent. Accessory sac either absent or small and slender; ductus spermathecae short and slender, with usually 2–3 small coils; there are at least two exceptions known: a short ductus spermathecae with 10–12 large coils and a long ductus spermathecae with about 18 large coils; vesicle usually plate-like, irregularly rounded. Corpus bursae long, gradually narrowing towards caudal end or usually with a slender, short to very long “neck”; pectinations of main body of corpus bursae absent, but occasionally there are indistinctive tiny spines on slender “neck” of the corpus bursae.

Bionomics. The genus is trophically associated with Urticaceae and Malvaceae host plants. Leaf mines of Paratischeria are irregular blotch-like, sometimes elongated and with short, but relatively wide, lateral galleries; frass absent or very little sparsely deposited; a nidus is usually not rounded but elongated or indistinctive, invisible (larvae usually hiding under larger veins in the leaf mine).

Species diversity and geographical distribution. The genus occurs in the tropical biome of South America (from Ecuador to Bolivia), equatorial Africa, and South and South East Asia ( India, Laos and Vietnam). Currently, the genus is comprised of six species: South American P. fasciata Diškus & Stonis , P. ferruginea Diškus & Stonis , the equatorial African P. urticicolella (Ghesquière) ( Stonis et al. 2017) , South Asian P. hestias (Meyrick) ( Xu et al. 2017) , and South East Asian P. boehmerica Diškus & Stonis , P. grossa Diškus & Stonis ( Stonis et al. 2021a) .

According to the currently available data, P. hestias has the broadest distribution; this species was originally described from India ( Meyrick 1915b), was recently found in northern Vietnam ( Xu et al. 2017), and here we provide new data from Laos: 1 Ô, 2 ♀, LAOS: Luang Prabang Prov., Nong Khiaw, 20°38’33”N, 102°40’30”E, elevation 480 m, mining larva on Helicteres sp. , 11.ii.2020, field card no. 5325, leg. A. Diškus, genitalia slide nos AD1116Ô, AD1114 ♀ (MfN); 1 Ô, same label data, genitalia slide no. AD1101Ô (from adult in pupal skin, no pinned specimen preserved) (GNU).

Figures

FIGURE 62. The Maximum Likelihood tree of 11 randomly selected sequences of species representing 11 genera of Tischeriidae (Table 1 + downloaded Paratischeria ferruginea HM244395, Neotischeria neotropicana HM244391, Dishkeya bifurcata LNAUT3265-15, Coptotrichoides serjaniphaga OK017167) based on the 608 bp long mtDNA CO1-5’ sequences). The Kimura 2-parameter model (1.000 replicates) was used to calculate divergence. The best supported and resolved dichotomies are highlighted. The morphological differences of genitalia are shown to the right of the tree

FIGURES 411–416. Details of male genitalia of Paratischeria spp. 411, P. boehmerica Diškus & Stonis, uncus, tegumen and dorsal plate, lateral view, holotype, slide no. AD1055 (MfN); 412, P. grossa Diškus & Stonis, uncus, tegumen, and dorsal plate, ventral view, paratype, slide no.AD1037 (MfN); 413, same, capsule, holotype, slide no.AD1066 (MfN) (after Stonis et al. 2021a); 414, P. ferruginea Diškus & Stonis, dorsal plate and vinculum, paratype, slide no. AD842 (ZMUC); 415, same, phallus, slide no. AD867 (ZMUC); 416, P. fasciata Diškus & Stonis, phallus, holotype, slide no. AD868 (ZMUC) (after Stonis et al. 2017)

FIGURES 63, 64. The Maximum Likelihood trees of Tischeriidae based on the 608 bp long mtDNA CO1-5’ sequences. The Kimura 2-parameter model (1.000 replicates) was used to calculate divergence. The best supported and resolved dichotomies are highlighted. 63, using the same (as in the Fig. 62) 11 randomly selected sequences of species representing 11 genera of Tischeriidae; the families of host plants are shown to the right of the tree; 64, same, but omitting Rytietia uncinata sp. nov.; the distribution of species is shown to the right of the tree