Location: Systematic Entomology Laboratory
2022 Annual Report
Objectives
Objective 1: Conduct integrative taxonomic research on adult and immature moths that incorporate morphological and molecular data to describe species and inform their phylogeny and classification. [NP304, C1, PS1A; C2, PS2B and 2C; C3, PS3A and 3B; C4 PS4A and 4B]
Subobjective 1.1: Conduct integrative taxonomic research of spilomeline genera (Pyraloidea or snout moths).
Subobjective 1.2: Conduct integrative taxonomic research of gelechiine genera (Gelechioidea: Gelechiidae or twirler moths).
Subobjective 1.3: Conduct integrative taxonomic research of select noctuid genera with a focus on those bearing on the origins of grass-, fern-, and fruit-feeding Noctuoidea.
Objective 2: Manage and enhance through fieldwork major segments of the U.S. National Insect Collection to be used for morphological and molecular research by U.S. scientists and stakeholders worldwide; mine the associated distributional and biological data for comprehensive databases, and provide rapid authoritative identifications, especially of potentially threatening insect pests. [NP304, C1, PS1A; C2, PS2B and 2C; C3, PS3A and 3B; C4 PS4A and 4B]
Objective 3: Provide expert/authoritative identifications for early detection of potentially invasive or novel pests intercepted by APHIS or Department of Homeland Security personnel at U.S. ports, and generate research associated with specimens submitted by ARS researchers for biological control research with U.S. state departments of agriculture and U.S. university scientists. [NP304, C1, PS1A; C2, PS2B; C3, PS3A and 3B; C4 PS4A and 4B]
Approach
Moth taxa from the Western Hemisphere were selected to fill a knowledge gap about phylogeny, taxonomy, and natural history and selected based on availability of material, the need for revisionary work, and/or relevance to American agriculture or natural resources. The following are the focus of research: in the Pyraloidea (Subobjective 1.1) Ategumia, Desmia, Diaphania, Eulepte, Herpetogramma, Omiodes, Patania; in the Gelechioidea (Subobjective 1.2) genera within and putatively near the Recurvaria-group (Gelechiinae: Litini); in the Noctuoidea (Subobjective 1.3) fern-feeding Argyrosticta in relation to Callopistria, boundaries and composition of the Eriopinae, and erebid litter moths (Herminiinae). Material for comparative study of molecular, morphological, and ecological variation will be mainly from the National Museum of Natural History collection and specimens with primary life history data and CO1 DNA barcodes from the Area de Conservacíon de Guanacaste Costa Rican project. Additional material will be sought from other insect collections, such as the Canadian National Collection (Ontario), The Natural History Museum (London), the Museum national d’histoire Naturelle (Paris), and the Museum für Naturkunde (Berlin). Type specimens of each species, including the type species for each genus, will be examined. Fieldwork for newly collected samples is planned for the United States or countries in the Western Hemisphere. Selected larvae of interest will be reared to adult and larval feeding behaviors documented. Taxon sampling will include ten specimens with multiple males and females per species, or as much as is available, and examined to acquire morphological character data with various stereomicroscopes, compound microscopes, scanning electron microscope, and/or a laser scanner. Digital images will be captured using a Visionary Digital BK imaging station to illustrate morphological features. In Gelechioidea, genitalia will be modeled in 3D using Blender to illustrate the highly complex structures. Various types of characters (i.e., integrative taxonomy), such as morphology, biology, geospatial, chronological, and molecular data for phylogenetic analyses will accompany revisionary papers as tests of monophyly and other evolutionary hypotheses, and as summaries of relevant character state distributions and character state changes. Molecular data, specifically CO1 DNA barcodes obtained via Sanger sequencing, will be used to (1) complement ecological and morphological data in the resolution of species-level problems for which morphology is ambiguous or inadequate, and (2) associate the sexes of sexually dimorphic species and associate larvae with adults. Next generation sequencing or a range of nuclear loci for Sanger sequencing will be used for higher level phylogenetic questions. In each of the noctuid groups, the phylogenetic structure developed in this work will be used to map foodplant and diet breadth data to test hypotheses about the number of origins of feeding syndromes (e.g., grass- and fern- feeding). Phylogenetic programs, such as the Tree analysis using New Technology (TNT), will be used to analyze the data.
Progress Report
This is the final report for the project 8042-22000-314-00D which terminated December 13, 2021. Planned research was completed prior to redirection to project 8042-22000-317-00D.
Progress was made on all three Objectives and their subobjectives, all of which fall under National Program 304, Crop Protection and Quarantine, Component 1, Systematics and Identification, especially Problem Statement 1A where efforts focus on the identification and relationships of insects that are pests or potential pests of the Nation’s crops and natural ecosystems, as well as exotic insects that could be used as enemies or that show potential as biological control agents of invasive plants. This report documents progress for Project Number 8042-22000-314-00D Systematics of Hyper-Diverse Moth Superfamilies, with an Emphasis on Agricultural Pests, Invasive Species, Biological Control Agents, and Food Security. This project began recently, in October 2020, and this progress report covers the last two months of the project.
We discovered errors in the currently accepted biomechanical model for frass ejection in leaf-tier moths, explored the diversity of leaf-tier moth larvae with morphology that might be associated with frass ejection, and devised a new biomechanical model for frass ejection to test. We described taro snout moth larvae for the first time that bore internally and described the external effects on taro plants for use by taro farmers. We compiled and prepared 190 specimens of Herminiinae and Pastona for DNA barcoding, including 95 historical specimens for Next Generation Sequencing, oversaw curation of Old World Notodontidae, and initiated a 2-year phylogenetic project on Prominent Moths with an incoming postdoctoral fellow.
Our subobjectives of Objective 1 are closely tied to our Objective 2, to manage and enhance with fieldwork the U.S. National Insect Collection that we utilize for our research and identifications. The National Collections are also heavily utilized for Objective 3, to provide authoritative identifications to ARS researchers conducting research on moth pests or biological control of noxious weeds, and to APHIS and Homeland Security personnel for detection of invasive and novel pests, i.e., the box tree moth new to the U.S. (including negative records) and new Texas county records of the invasive cactus moth. During this two-month period we provided over 364 urgent identifications submitted by U.S. ports for rapid identification and action on their part. Some identifications were based on actual specimens, but the majority were based on digital images of specimens due to the pandemic.
Accomplishments
Review Publications
Solis, M.A., Scheffer, S.J., Lewis, M.L., Rendon, P. 2021. Diatraea postlineella Schaus (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) from Guatemala; molecular identity and host plant. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 123(3):638-651. https://doi.org/10.4289/0013-8797.123.3.637.
Stonis, J.R., Diskus, A., Remeikis, A., Fernandez-Alonso, J.L., Baryshnikova, S., Solis, M.A. 2021. Documenting leaf-mining trumpet moths (Tischeriidae): new Neotropical Coptotriche and Astrotischeria species, with notes on Sapindaceae as a host-plant family. Zootaxa. 5047(3):300-320. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5047.3.4.
Dobrynina, V., Stonis, J.R., Diskus, A., Solis, M.A., Baryshnikova, S., Shin, Y. 2022. Global Nepticulidae, Opostegidae, and Tischeriidae (Lepidoptera): temporal dynamics of species descriptions and their authors. Zootaxa. 5099 (4):450-474. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5099.4.2.
Vargas, H., Solis, M.A., Vargas-Ortiz, M. 2022. The South American Rheumaptera mochica (Dognin, 1904) (Lepidoptera, Geometridae, Larentiinae), illuminated after more than a century of anonymity. ZooKeys. 1085:129-143. https://doi.org/10.3897/Zookeys.1085.76868.
