Astrotischeria karsholti Puplesis & Diskus , 2003

Vargas, Hector A., 2023, A new distribution record, first host plant record and DNA barcoding of the Neotropical micromoth Astrotischeria karsholti Puplesis & Diskus (Lepidoptera, Tischeriidae), Biodiversity Data Journal 11, pp. 115397-115397 : 115397

Astrotischeria karsholti Puplesis & Diskus, 2003

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 2; sex: male; occurrenceID: 4FCB30DA-EF41-5959-B20D-21C560A30886; Taxon: scientificName: Astrotischeria karsholti Puplesis & Diškus, 2003; higherClassification: Insecta; Lepidoptera; Tischeriidae; genus: Astrotischeria; specificEpithet: karsholti; scientificNameAuthorship: Puplesis & Diškus, 2003; Location: continent: South America; country: Chile; stateProvince: Arica; locality: Azapa Valley ; decimalLatitude: -18.52; decimalLongitude: -70.18; Identification: identifiedBy: Héctor A. Vargas; identificationRemarks: Genitalia slides HAV1680, HAV1681; Event: samplingProtocol: Male adults emerged October 2022, reared from leaf mines on Ambrosia cumanensis collected September 2022; Record Level: type: PhysicalObject; language: en; institutionID: " Colección Entomológica de la Universidad de Tarapacá " (IDEA) Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 2; sex: male; occurrenceID: 98E275BB-728F-59D6-872A-79CFAFA3B21E; Taxon: scientificName: Astrotischeria karsholti Puplesis & Diškus, 2003; higherClassification: Insecta; Lepidoptera; Tischeriidae; genus: Astrotischeria; specificEpithet: karsholti; scientificNameAuthorship: Puplesis & Diškus, 2003; Location: continent: South America; country: Chile; stateProvince: Arica; locality: Azapa Valley ; decimalLatitude: -18.52; decimalLongitude: -70.18; Identification: identifiedBy: Héctor A. Vargas; identificationRemarks: Genitalia slides HAV1088, HAV1405; Event: samplingProtocol: Male adults emerged November 2017, reared from leaf mines on Ambrosia cumanensis collected October 2017; Record Level: type: PhysicalObject; language: en; institutionID: " Colección Entomológica de la Universidad de Tarapacá " (IDEA) Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; sex: male; occurrenceID: 831F005C-C567-5180-914C-B8D68CA49522; Taxon: scientificName: Astrotischeria karsholti Puplesis & Diškus, 2003; higherClassification: Insecta; Lepidoptera; Tischeriidae; genus: Astrotischeria; specificEpithet: karsholti; scientificNameAuthorship: Puplesis & Diškus, 2003; Location: continent: South America; country: Chile; stateProvince: Arica; locality: Azapa Valley ; decimalLatitude: -18.52; decimalLongitude: -70.18; Identification: identifiedBy: Héctor A. Vargas; identificationRemarks: Genitalia slide HAV119; Event: samplingProtocol: Male adult emerged April 2018, reared from leaf mines on Ambrosia cumanensis collected March 2018; Record Level: type: PhysicalObject; language: en; institutionID: " Colección Entomológica de la Universidad de Tarapacá " (IDEA)

Taxonomic identification

Five male adults emerged from the mined leaves of A. cumanensis collected in the Azapa Valley, all of which were identified as A. karsholti (Fig. 1 ), based on comparisons with descriptions and figures in Puplesis and Diškus (2003) and Stonis et al. (2018).

Distribution

The discovery of A. karsholti in the Azapa Valley represents the first record of this micromoth in Chile, expanding the previously documented distribution range nearly 900 km to the southeast (Fig. 2 ).

Host plant

Ambrosia cumanensis is the first host plant recorded for A. karsholti . Leaf mines of A. karsholti were searched for on other members of Asteraceae growing in the study area, but no additional hosts were found for this micromoth. The egg is deposited on the abaxial surface of the leaf and the larva penetrates the leaf through this side. New mines are visible only from the abaxial surface of the leaf, while completely developed mines are partially translucent and, thus, detectable from the two leaf sides, suggesting that the larva eats a great part of the internal tissues of the leaf. The last instar constructs a well-delimited circular cell (nidus) inside the mine for pupation. Adult emergence occurs through a slit on the margin of the nidus (Fig. 3 ).

DNA barcoding

Genetic divergence of A. karsholti with other members of Astrotischeria ranged between 6 and 18.4% (K2P), with Astrotischeria trilobata Diškus & Stonis, 2018 and Astrotischeria sanjosei Stonis & Diškus, 2019, respectively, while it was 9.9% with A. chilei , the only Chilean congeneric (Suppl. material 2). The monophyly of Coptotriche , Paratischeria and Tischeria was strongly supported in the ML analysis (Fig. 4 ). In contrast, only 12 of the 15 analysed species of Astrotischeria formed a monophyletic group. The relationships in this group were poorly resolved, with the exception of A. karsholti + A. trilobata and Astrotischeria solidagonifoliella (Clemens, 1859) + Astrotischeria astericola (Braun, 1972).

Figures

Figure 1. Male adult of Astrotischeria karsholti Puplesis & Diskus, 2003 reared from a leaf mine on Ambrosia cumanensis Kunth (Asteraceae) collected in northern Chile. A Habitus, dorsal view; B Genitalia, ventral view. Scale bars 1 and 0.01 mm, respectively.

Figure 2. Geographic distribution of Astrotischeria karsholti Puplesis & Diskus, 2003 in South America. Previous records from central Peru indicated by square (type locality) and circles, new record from northern Chile indicated by triangle.

Figure 3. Natural history of Astrotischeria karsholti Puplesis & Diskus, 2003 in the Azapa Valley, Arica Province of northern Chile. A The host plant Ambrosia cumanensis Kunth (Asteraceae) in the neighbourhood of a citrus orchard; B, C Leaf mine on A. cumanensis previous to nidus formation, adaxial and abaxial views, respectively; D, E Leaf mine at the beginning and at the end of nidus formation, respectively, abaxial view; F Last instar larva removed from mine of B and C; G Nidus of D and E opened to show the pupa.

Figure 4. Maximum Likelihood tree of Astrotischeria karsholti Puplesis & Diskus, 2003 and other members of Tischeriidae, based on mitochondrial DNA sequences. Rectangle indicates a monophyletic group of Astrotischeria Puplesis & Diskus, 2003; species of this genus clustered outside this clade are indicated by black arrows; type species are in bold. Numbers indicate SH-aLRT / UFBoot values (1000 replicates).