A New Species of Alucita L. (Lepidoptera: Alucitidae) from Northern Chile

Abstract

Male and female adults of a new species of Alucita L. (Lepidoptera: Alucitidae) are described and illustrated from the Azapa Valley, northern Chile. Immature stages are associated with fruit of "chuve", Tecoma fulva (Cav.) D. Don. (Bignoniaceae). This is the irst species of Alucitidae described from Chile.

Egg laying site selection by a host plant specialist leaf miner moth at two intra-plant levels in the northern Chilean Atacama Desert

“…2A). Egg laying patterns among leaf or leaflet surfaces have been already described for some other Neotropical species of Gracillariidae (Davis 1994;Mundaca 2005;Bentancourt & Scatoni 2007;Kawahara et al 2009;Davis & De Prins 2011;Davis & Wagner 2005, 2011Brito et al 2012Brito et al , 2013Mundaca et al 2013). In terms of the leaf mine, observations indicate that most of the Gracillariidae larvae begin mining the leaf on the same surface where the egg has been deposited, as previously described for A. tecomae Vargas 2010).…”

“…Like A. tecomae, many native, little known Lepidoptera of the coastal valleys of the Atacama Desert are associated with relatively ephemeral plant organs, eating on flowers (Vargas & Parra 2009), new leaves or unripe seeds (Vargas 2011). Furthermore, many of these are strongly associated with their respective host plants, including some cases of monophagy.…”

Cryptic Diversity in the Monotypic Neotropical Micromoth Genus Angelabella (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) in the Peru-Chile Desert

“…The only other micromoth associated with T. fulva is the many-plumed moth Alucita danunciae Vargas, 2011 (Lepidoptera: Alucitidae), whose larvae feed on unripe seeds, either on T. f. fulva in the coastal valleys of northern Chile [ 62 ] or T. f. arequipensis on the western slopes of the Andes of Arequipa in southern Peru [ 63 ]. Divergence of 0.6–0.9% (K2P) was recorded between DNA barcodes of A. danunciae from the two localities [ 63 ], contrasting with the 4.7–5.6% (K2P) found in the present study between DNA barcodes of Angelabella from northern Chile and Arequipa, suggesting different lineage diversification scenarios in micromoths associated with the same host plants in the same geographic range, a comparative aspect that deserves further attention.…”

A new cecidogenous species of many-plumed moth (Alucitidae) associated with Cordiera A. Rich. ex DC. (Rubiaceae) in the Brazilian Cerrado

“…Alucitidae is a small, worldwide family of apoditrysian moths with nine valid genera and ca 216 species (Gielis 2003, Nieukerken et al 2011. Several additional alucitid species have been described for the family recently, particularly in the tropics (e.g., Vargas 2011, Heppner 2015, Ustjuzhanin and Kovtunovich 2016, Ustjuzhanin et al 2018, and many are supposed yet to be discovered in these regions. A total of 27 species of alucitids are found in the Neotropics, of which only six have been recorded in Brazil (Gielis 2003, Vargas 2011, Heppner 2015.…”

“…In contrast to the adults, their immature stages are poorly known, especially in the Neotropical region where the host plants for a few species have been documented, particularly within Alucita Linnaeus, 1758 the most speciose, worldwide genus (e.g. Vargas 2011). Four other endemic genera have been described for the region: Hexeretmis Meyrick, 1929, Prymnotomis Meyrick, 1931, Paelia Walker, 1866, and Alinguata Fleming, 1948; to the best of our A new cecidogenous species of many-plumed moth (Alucitidae) associated with Cordiera A.…”