Pterolonche

Pterolonche is small genus of small moths of the family Pterolonchidae.[1][2]

Pterolonche
Pterolonche inspersa adult
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Superfamily:
Gelechioidea
Family:
Pterolonchidae
Genus:
Pterolonche

Zeller, 1847
Synonyms[1]
  • Pteroloncha Handlirsch, 1925 -lapsus

Taxonomy

The genus was first circumscribed in 1847 by Philipp Christoph Zeller to include two new species.[1][2] The type species is Pterolonche albescens.[2]

In 1984 Antonio Vives Moreno described the new species P. gozmaniella from Andalucia, but in 1987 Vives reviewed the family Pterolonchidae in Spain, synonymising P. gozmaniella with P. lutescentella and P. gracilis with P. inspersa, describing a new species, and counting five species in the genus Pterolonche. He subdivided the genus in three subgenera. He did not address the species described by Hans Georg Amsel from respectively Malta and Iraq a few decades earlier.[1]

In 2011 it was classified as one of two genera in the family Pterolonchidae in the superfamily Gelechioidea by van Nieukerken et al.[3]

In 2014 a cladistics analysis performed by Heikkilä et al. expanded the family to seven genera. They classified the genus in the subfamily Pterolonchinae.[4]

Species
A Pterolonche inspersa caterpillar

The following species are known:[1][2]

Distribution

The species are all found around the Mediterranean Sea.[2] Spain has at least five species, Portugal has four.[1] As far as is known, P. vallettae appears to be endemic to Malta.[6]

Ecology
Pterolonche inspersa larvae infesting the roots of a Centaurea species.

The species are all nocturnal. Both sexes are attracted to artificial lights at night. In Spain the moths have two generations per year, with the first emerging from the end of march to the beginning of June, and a second, much more abundant generation between July and the start of October. They have been encountered from sea level to 1500m in altitude in Spain.[1]

P. inspersa caterpillars feed on Centaurea species, a herbaceous, thistle-like plant. They tunnel into the root crown of their host plant and feed on the root tissue. As they reach the root cortex, they spin a silken tube and feed from within the tube. Mature larvae overwinter in the roots. In spring, a silken tube is made above the soil surface in which pupation takes place.[7]

Uses

P. inspersa was released as a biological control agent for knapweed, Centaurea diffusa, in Colorado, Montana, and Oregon in the mid to late 1980s, although there was no known establishment of the species in the United States initially, it has since spread to Idaho and British Columbia.[7][8]

References
  1. Vives Moreno, Antonio (27 February 1987). "La familia Pterolonchidae Meyrick, 1918, de España y Portugal (Insecta, Lepidoptera)" (PDF). Revista Española de Entomología (in Spanish). 62 (1–4): 319–337. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  2. Savela, Markku (24 August 2017). "Pterolonche". Lepidoptera and some other life forms. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  3. van Nieukerken, Erik J., Kaila, Lauri, Kitching, Ian J., Kristensen, Niels P., Lees, David C., Minet, Joël, Mitter, Charles, Mutanen, Marko, Regier, Jerome C., Simonsen, Thomas J., Wahlberg, Niklas, Yen, Shen-Horn, Zahiri, Reza, Adamski, David, Baixeras, Joaquin, Bartsch, Daniel, Bengtsson, Bengt Å., Brown, John W., Bucheli, Sibyl Rae, Davis, Donald R., de Prins, Jurate, de Prins, Willy, Epstein, Marc E., Gentili-Poole, Patricia, Gielis, Cees, Hättenschwiler, Peter, Hausmann, Axel, Holloway, Jeremy D., Kallies, Axel, Karsholt, Ole, Kawahara, Akito Y., Koster, Sjaak (J.C.), Kozlov, Mikhail V., Lafontaine, J. Donald, Lamas, Gerardo, Landry, Jean-François, Lee, Sangmi, Nuss, Matthias, Park, Kyu-Tek, Penz, Carla, Rota, Jadranka, Schintlmeister, Alexander, Schmidt, B. Christian, Sohn, Jae-Cheon, Alma Solis, M., Tarmann, Gerhard M., Warren, Andrew D., Weller, Susan, Yaklovlev, Roman V., Zolotuhin, Vadim V. & Zwick, Andreas (2011). "Order Lepidoptera Linnaeus, 1758" (PDF). In Zhang, Zhi-Qiang (ed.). Animal biodiversity: an outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness. Zootaxa. 3148. pp. 212–221. ISBN 978-1-86977-850-7. Retrieved 26 December 2019.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  4. Heikkilä, Maria; Mutanen, Marko; Kekkonen, Mari; Kaila, Lauri (November 2014). "Morphology reinforces proposed molecular phylogenetic affinities: a revised classification for Gelechioidea (Lepidoptera)". Cladistics. 30 (6): 563–589. doi:10.1111/cla.12064. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  5. "Pterolonche inspersa Staudinger, 1859". Fauna Europaea. Fauna Europaea Secretariat, Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz & Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  6. "Pterolonche Zeller, 1847". Fauna Europaea. Fauna Europaea Secretariat, Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz & Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  7. "Pterolonche inspersa". BugWood. Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health, University of Georgia. 19 January 2011. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  8. "Pterolonche inspersa". Weed-feeder. Department of Entomology, Cornell University. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
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