Austral Entomology最新文献

The wheat sheath miner, Cerodontha australis, is widespread and abundant in New Zealand and also occurs in eastern Australia. Adult and larval C. australis feed on cereals and grasses, including the economically important perennial ryegrass, Lolium perenne. There is little literature about C. australis, and much of the early work may relate to other species due to its initial misidentification. Morphology-based identification can be challenging, and the absence of online barcode sequences from voucher specimens for C. australis has precluded diagnosis using molecular techniques. In this study, two individual adult leafminers collected from L. perenne plants in New Zealand were confirmed as C. australis morphologically. One has been retained as a voucher specimen and its mitochondrial barcode sequence submitted to online databases. Comparison with adult and larval specimens previously sequenced by the authors confirmed they were also C. australis. Molecular identification of 20 hymenopteran pupal endoparasitoids, and a subset of the puparia they emerged from, revealed Trichopria sp. (Diapriidae), Eupelmus messene (Eupelmidae) and three haplotypes (or closely related species) of Eulophidae. Sequences for all wasps were submitted to GenBank. All the puparia were visually identified as C. australis, and a subset that included a host pupa of each identified endoparasitoid species were confirmed as C. australis based on comparison with our barcode sequence. This work will aid future studies on C. australis and has allowed identification of unidentified sequences on public databases formerly submitted by other New Zealand researchers. It also provides new records of association between C. australis and its pupal endoparasitoids. More broadly, our study provides an example of the importance of authoritative morphological identification of specimens alongside molecular identification, and highlights the challenges in identifying species for which this has not been done.

Taxonomic review of the monotypic Australian endemic lycaenid genus Cyprotides Tite, 1963, based on comparative evidence of adult and juvenile morphology and biology, indicates that it comprises three allopatric and ecologically distinct species: C. pallescens Tite, 1963 stat. rev., C. cyprotus (Olliff, 1886) and C. maculosus sp. nov. Cyprotides cyprotus is considered to comprise three subspecies: C. cyprotus cyprotus (Olliff, 1886) in the Sydney Sandstone region; C. cyprotus lucidus ssp. nov. in the semi-arid zone of inland central New South Wales, north-western Victoria, South Australia, and south-western Western Australia; and C. cyprotus aridus ssp. nov. in the arid zone of southern Northern Territory and Western Australia. In contrast, C. maculosus sp. nov. appears to be a narrow-range endemic, restricted to subalpine areas in south-eastern Australia (~1100–1500 m asl). Information on the distribution, ecology and biology is reviewed and summarised for each of these five taxa, with additional data provided on the habitat and conservation status of C. maculosus sp. nov., which is considered to be Endangered under IUCN Red List Criteria. All three species appear to be characterised by predominantly univoltine life cycles but with variable pupal diapause that may last up to 2–3 years, larval polymorphism, facultative associations with ants, pupal stridulation and rapid larval development involving only four instars. It is hypothesised that speciation within this genus has occurred recently, driven by reinforcement following secondary contact, leading to pre-mating isolation and character displacement, resulting in divergent phenotypes.

The Bag-shelter moth Ochrogaster lunifer (Lepidoptera: Notodontidae: Thaumetopoeinae) is an endemic species of medical and veterinary importance that occurs throughout Australia. The gregarious species is variable with four phylogenetic clades recently identified. One clade comprises trunk-nesters restricted to one host: the Moreton Bay Ash, Corymbia tessellaris (Myrtaceae). Here, we describe aspects of the biology and ecology of this distinctive nesting form dupped the ‘tree-hugger’ due to its flattish, thick silk nests that hug the trunk and larger branches. The form is univoltine; egg masses are laid in spring and the gregarious larvae develop through seven instars until the mature larvae stop feeding in autumn and later leave the nest (in a procession). The larvae over-winter in the ground as pre-pupae in a loose cocoon of silk. Pupation occurs in late winter and adults emerge in spring. Forty-six per cent of monitored egg masses succeeded in developing through the lifecycle. Tachinids were common parasites of older larvae. Tree-hugger nests provided some insulation against summer heat during the mornings, but the physical characteristics of the nests and tree trunks and the average southern orientation of the nests likely protect larvae against extreme heat. The tree-hugger form of O. lunifer appears morphologically similar to the more ubiquitous ground-nesting form, but there are differences in the colour of egg masses and adults, and in the behaviour and ecology of the larvae and adults. This information adds to the body of evidence supporting the definition of separate species within what is currently known as O. lunifer.

Nothepyris Evans, 1973 is revised. Six species are recognised, two being previously described species, Nothepyris brasiliensis Evans, 1973 and Nothepyris pretiosus Colombo & Azevedo, 2019, and four species described and illustrated as new, Nothepyris beedrill sp. nov., Nothepyris combee sp. nov., Nothepyris durant sp. nov. and Nothepyris vespiquen sp. nov. The species Nothepyris sulcatus (Azevedo, 1999) syn. nov. is proposed as a junior synonym of Nothepyris brasiliensis. For the first time, males of this genus are described, and the morphology of the male genitalia is compared and discussed with other Scleroderminae. An updated taxonomic key to all species for both sexes is presented.

No abstract is available for this article.

Determining the identity of potential control agents is critical to successful biological control and can contribute to our understanding of the failures of previous introductions, especially in cases where host-associated cryptic species may be present. In 1975, a mealybug was introduced into Australia from Argentina for the classical biological control of the invasive cactus Harrisia martinii (Cactaceae). This cactus also originates from Argentina and is an environmental and agricultural weed in parts of Australia. Since its release, the imported mealybug species has been incorrectly referred to as Hypogeococcus festerianus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) in the applied literature, and its performance as a biological control agent has been considered poor in some locations. In this study, the identities of mealybug specimens collected from 10 locations in Queensland and New South Wales, Australia, were assessed. The genetic, morphological and reproductive characteristics of these specimens were compared with those of two congeneric mealybug species, Hypogeococcus pungens sensu stricto (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) and Hypogeococcus festerianus. Specimens from the different Australian localities examined were all very similar to each other morphologically and genetically, based on comparisons of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data. The morphological features of all the specimens were typical of Hypogeococcus pungens sensu stricto. H. pungens is now considered to constitute a species complex, and the specimens from Australia are genetically similar to the Cactaceae clade of this species complex from Argentina. In common with H. pungens s. s., the insects collected in Australia can also reproduce parthenogenetically. These findings help confirm that all populations of the mealybug in Australia are not H. festerianus, but part of the H. pungens cryptic species complex. There is no mismatch between this agent and the host plant in Australia, as H. martinii is one of the host plants of the most closely related cryptic species of H. pungens in the native range in Argentina. Thus, despite the original confusion around its identity, the variable performance of the introduced mealybug as a biological control agent of H. martini in Australia is likely due to other factors, and these require further investigation.

‘Slow science’ approaches to generating authoritative longitudinal datasets for long-term monitoring are fundamental to conservation biology. Following reports of significant arthropod declines worldwide, and recent climate-driven disasters such as the devastating ‘Black Summer’ bushfires of 2019–2020, there has been a renewed focus on invertebrate conservation in Australia and further calls for informative baseline datasets with which to understand increasingly rapid biotic change. Trapdoor spiders of the infraorder Mygalomorphae, in particular, have been the subject of decades of research highlighting their sensitivity to environmental change and their special significance to conservation biology. In 2019, the senior author and collaborators introduced within this journal a new long-term monitoring study system for an Australian mygalomorph spider (Euoplos grandis Wilson & Rix, 2019; family Idiopidae), then in its infancy with just 18 months of quantitative demographic data. In the current study, we extend and build upon that work and provide a synthesis of demographic information accumulated over half a decade, resulting in 166 collective years' worth of times-series data from 101 individual spiders. We infer an estimated average cumulative growth curve for the species based on census data from 77 spiders, with evidence for a 7+-year juvenile female growth period and a potential life span for adult females of over 20 years. Passive surveillance using a camera trap deployed at the study site for 8 months resulted in significant advances in our understanding of the biology and behaviour of E. grandis, with a suite of behaviours observed for the first time, including rarely documented interactions with conspecifics, potential predators and prey. We further summarise the results of maximum entropy potential habitat modelling as informed by extensive on-ground surveys and a refined taxonomy, and provide an updated conservation assessment using the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria. These results reveal that E. grandis is a Vulnerable threatened species endemic to the highly fragmented southern Brigalow Belt bioregion, with population dynamics and life history characteristics that underscore the considerable sensitivity of Australian idiopid trapdoor spiders to a multitude of threatening processes.

The development of the field of biological control of weeds in Australia is described, from the first attempts in 1903 to the present day. The interest sparked by the obvious success of prickly pear program, apparent from 1930 to 1935, resulted in several programs during the next 20 years, followed by a decline in activity until the 1970s when activity increased enormously following the success of the skeleton weed program and the effective use of a plant pathogen for the first time. This momentum was maintained until the beginning of the present century with several successes and was marked by several important advances in genetic profiling, host-specificity testing, economic evaluation, conflict of interest resolution and the ecology of insect/plant interactions, including evaluation of the effectiveness of individual introductions. Biological control has proved to be a valuable and effective approach to weed management in Australia with 39% of all programs considered to produce complete or near-complete control, 30.5% partial control and an average benefit–cost ratio of 23:1. Funding for research has been variable with a decline from the late 1990s but with a significant increase again since 2020.

Mosquitoes are found worldwide; in Brazil, 530 species are distributed across all its biomes. Understanding of the biodiversity of the Caatinga biome remains incomplete, especially for Culicidae. We carried out a sampling of immature and adult mosquitoes in aquatic habitats and using Shannon traps in a seasonally dry tropical forest, in the semiarid of Rio Grande do Norte. A total of 1747 immatures of 13 species were collected during the study period (2017–2020) in groundwater sites, rock depressions, with and without vegetation, and tree holes. The maintenance of temporary breeding sites is related to the dry and rainy seasons. We collected 2132 adult mosquitoes of 12 species between 5 and 8 PM. Correlation analyses showed the effect of meteorological variables on Culicidae populations. Both immature and adult mosquitoes' abundance were significantly influenced by temperature and wind. The abundance of adult mosquitoes of the genera Aedes demonstrated a positive correlation with temperature, and a negative one with Mansonia and Uranotaenia. Our study adds information on the population dynamics of mosquitoes in the Brazilian semiarid, highlighting the bioecological relationships and breeding sites of species relevant to public health.