Caloptilia rhusina Vári, 1961

Triberti, Paolo, Staude, Hermann, Sharp, Ian & Lopez-Vaamonde, Carlos, 2024, Exploring the diversity of Gracillariidae (Lepidoptera) in South Africa: host plants, distribution, and DNA barcoding analysis, with the description of nine new species, Zootaxa 5529 (1), pp. 1-51 : 6

1. Caloptilia rhusina Vári, 1961

( Fig. 2 )

Caloptilia rhusina Vári, 1961:14

Material examined. 3♀, South Africa, Western Cape, Robberg Nature Reserve , Plettenberg Bay , mn 08/iv/2014, pup 22/iv/2014, em 28/iv/2014, Searsia lucida , (rearing: SM3922a&d) Mecenero S. leg., CLV7558 , CLV7568 , CLV7577 , slides TRB4423♀, TRB4432♀ .

Biology. Searsia (= Rhus ) lucida (L.) F. A. Barkley ( Anacardiaceae ).

Distribution. South Africa (Western Cape).

DNA barcodes. We successfully obtained a single barcode (CLV7577, SOURE021-19) out of the three specimens we attempted to sequence. This specific barcode has been assigned to a unique BIN BOLD:AEC5398 ( Tables S1 & 2 ). The nearest neighbor of this BIN is BOLD:AEW0044, which consists of five Malaise trapped South Africa gracillariids ( Table S1 ).

Remarks. Only female individuals of this species are currently known. This and the following species are both feeding on the genus Searsia , but they cannot be compared based on their genitalia because only individuals of opposite sexes have been documented. However, adults can be distinguished by their coloration: C. rhusina has a very light ochre colour, while C. dicksoni Vári, 1961 has a more greyish tone. Additionally, the species can be differentiated using barcodes, resulting in two different BINS (as shown in Table S1 ).

There are two other Caloptilia species in South Africa that also feed on Searsia : C. syngenica Vári, 1961 on S. pallens (Eckl. & Zeyh.) Moffett and C. xanthochiria Vári, 1961 on S. longipes (Engl.) Moffett. However , the female genitalia of these species have significant differences in the sterigma and antrum, which makes them easily distinguishable (refer to pl. 76–77 in Vári 1961).

Figures

FIGURES 1−6. Adults of South African Gracillariidae. 1, Caloptilia sp., Limpopo, Lekgalameetse N. R., A. & I. Sharp leg. 2, Caloptilia rhusina, Western Cape, Robberg Nature Reserve, S. Mecenero leg. 3, Macarostola noellineae, Limpopo, Hoedspruit, A. & I. Sharp leg. 4, Caloptilia cataractias, Limpopo, Hoedspruit, leg. A. & I. Sharp. 5, Ectropina spirostachydis sp. nov., Limpopo, Hoedspruit, A. & I. Sharp leg. 6, Graphiocephala barbitias, Gauteng, Tshwane, A. Sharp leg.