Abstract
A new willow leaf blotch miner, Phyllocnistis gracilistylella sp. nov. (host plants: Salix gracilistyla, S. serissaefolia, S. integra, and S. gilgiana) is described and compared with P. unipunctella (Stephens, 1834) and P. saligna (Zeller, 1839). Phyllocnistis unipunctella is newly recorded from the mainland Japan. Adult morphologies and life histories of the three Salicaceae mining species are described with photographs and illustrations. The pupal morphologies of the new species and P. saligna are described with the use of a scanning electron microscope. The new species and P. saligna occurred together, but differed in the position of the mines; the former utilized only the leaf, mostly the lower surface, while the latter utilized the stem and upper surface of the leaf and partly the leaf edge at the cocoon stage. The new species was clearly divided from P. saligna not only by adult and pupal morphologies but also by DNA barcodes. Molecular analysis using reference DNA barcods also indicated that Japanese representatives of P. saligna are more closely related to P. ramulicola than to European P. saligna.
