Revealing a Novel Potential Pest of Plum Trees in the Caucasus: A Species Resembling the European Leaf-Mining Stigmella plagicolella, Nepticulidae.

In instances of severe infestations, Nepticulidae larvae can inflict damage on cultivated plants. Previously, it was assumed that the Prunus-feeding Nepticulidae have continuous distribution from Europe to the neighboring Caucasus. During recent fieldwork in the Caucasus, leaf mines were found on plum trees that initially resembled those of Stigmella plagicolella (Stainton) in Europe. However, upon rearing the adults, significant differences emerged, leading to the hypothesis that a different Prunus-feeding species exists in the Caucasus; this challenges previous records in Western Asia. This paper presents the outcomes of our morphological, molecular, and statistical investigations, unveiling S. colchica sp. nov., a previously unknown potential plum-tree pest. Distinguished by male genitalia characteristics, the new species differs from S. plagicolella. The inter- and intraspecific divergences between S. colchica sp. nov. and S. plagicolella range from 3.5% to 6.02%. Moreover, the utilized delimitation algorithms reliably clustered two species separately, as does our mitotype network. A statistical analysis also shows a discernible trend between the leaf mines of S. colchica sp. nov. and S. plagicolella. This unexpected discovery not only documents a new potential pest, enhancing our understanding of the Caucasian fauna, but also contributes to the broader biological inventory.

Collecting in the Northern Andean Páramo revealed purple iridescent pygmy moths of the little known Andean endemic Brachinepticula (Nepticulidae).

This paper describes two new species of Brachinepticula Stonis & Diskus: B. melania Remeikis, Mey & Stonis, sp. nov. and B. colombica Remeikis, Mey & Stonis, sp. nov. Both the new species were collected in the Northern Andean Páramo (Cundinamarca, Colombia). Since the specimens were caught at night-time with a light trap, the host plants remain unknown. The examination of the morphology of the male genitalia of B. melania and female genitalia of B. colombica revealed a highly distinctive new taxa of pygmy moths and broadened our knowledge of the morphology and distribution of the recently described endemic genus Brachinepticula Diskus & Stonis. The examination of the new findings also allowed us updating the diagnosis of Brachinepticula. The new species were illustrated with photographs of the genitalia, adults, and habitats.

Unexpected mitotype diversity of Simplimorpha promissa (Lepidoptera: Nepticulidae) in Ukraine and Armenia revealing a possible cryptic taxon.

In this paper, the results of a recent molecular study of theCotinus-feeding, leaf-miningSimplimorpha promissa(Staudinger) (Lepidoptera: Nepticulidae) are discussed for the first time on the basis of samples collected in Ukraine and Armenia. Newly obtained mtDNACO1-5'sequences from these countries were compared with previously known sequences from France, Italy, Croatia and Greece. A mitotype network and a Neighbor-Joining tree of twenty-two specimens ofS. promissaare provided.They show that the studied specimens from Ukraine and the rest of the European countries are genetically closer to each other than to the examined specimens from Armenia, thereby suggesting the Armenian specimens could represent a sister taxon to the EuropeanS. promissa. The study also revealed a significantly large genetic diversity ofS. promissain Ukraine.

Global Nepticulidae, Opostegidae, and Tischeriidae (Lepidoptera): temporal dynamics of species descriptions and their authors.

This study identifies the number of named and described species of three monotrysian, plant-mining lepidopteran families worldwide: Nepticulidae and Opostegidae (Nepticuloidea), and Tischeriidae (Tischerioidea). At the end of 2021, we estimated that a total of 1000 Nepticulidae species, 197 Opostegidae species, and 170 Tischeriidae species have been described since the taxonomic practice of describing species began in the 18th century. We examine and discuss the history of descriptions and authorship of species worldwide for each of the three families. We found that the total (accumulative) number of species described increased with each time period delineated. About five new species were described per year on average, or about 22 new species were described per year in the 21st century. We recognize researchers with the most number of described species in these three taxa.

Differentiation of the Andean Ozadelpha ovata and O. rionegrella sp. nov. (Lepidoptera, Nepticulidae) based on characters of the male genitalia.

We describe a new species, Ozadelpha rionegrella Remeikis Dobrynina, sp. nov., a pygmy moth (Nepticulidae) from the southern Andes (Argentina). The new species is illustrated with photographs of the adult and male genitalia. We briefly discuss the issues of diagnostics of the new species and the related O. ovata (Puplesis Robinson, 2000) and provide an updated pictorial tool for diagnostics of all currently known Ozadelpha species.