" ; ! ,I ! l ~WW ~WW 1.0 ~ 1.0 ~ L W W 122 "' r I:.l . I:.lwWW. Ii.: ~ ~ Ii.: ~ : W 2.0 : w "'" .......... "" ..........• 112===== i ' ! 11111 1.1 f ~ 1.8 ! 111111.8 '1I111~ '"" 1.4 ~1l11.6 1111,1.25 111111.4 111111.6 MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS-J963-A NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS-J963-A , . ,,",.,_. ,. Taxonomy of Acrobasis Larvae and Pupae in Eastern North America (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) . .. Teclmical Bulletin No. 1457 ''":<! c... ~.jJ .r. ., -,,", 1= ") 0J r--c':' .,~ ,~ • . ~ r- ,.! .,..( ; CO? I ;:"'l C':! J. ;:. ") co ,;;. 1.0 (. ; '.'1 ~. L1­ r· •.::1 ... i~ .' ! i. Agricultural Research Service UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ;,. in cooperation with North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station '" Taxonomy of Acrobasis Larvae and Pupae in Eastern North America (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) i By H. H. Neunzig Technical Bulletin No. 1457 Agricultural Research Service UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE in cooperation with Nortl' Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station Washington, D.C. Issued December 1972 For sllle by the Suprrintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price $1.25 Stock Number 0100-2471 Acknowledgments This shuy was conducted under Agricultural Research Service Grant No. 12-14-100-9150(33). -\ • E. L. Todd and D. M. Weisman of the Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, made available for study the collection of AC1·obasi.s adults and immatures at the t U.S. National Museum of Natural History. Additional Acrobasis larvae and pupae from Florida and Wisconsin were provided by • D. H. Habeck of the University of Florida. I am grateful for the assistance of Betty W. Robbins of North Carolina State University. She reared, preserved, and measured immatures, mounted most of the associated adults, made genitalic dissectiolls, and aided in numerous other ways in the study. A. L. Kyles, E. J. Venuto, T. R. Weaver, and J. D. Wellborn, all cf North Carolina State University, assisted in collecting and rearing. The parasites associated with AC1'obasis larvae and pupae that were collected during the study were identified by the following specialists of the Systematic Entomology Laboratory: B. D. Burks, R. W. Carlson, P. M. Marsh, C. W. Sabrosky, and L. M. Walkley. I also thank J. R. Baker of North Carolina State University for preparing figures 158, 159, 161-163, 166, 167, and 170-186. iii Contents Page 2 Materials and methods ----.---------------------------------------- ~ Key to last-stage larvae ____________________' _______________________ 5 • Key to pupa0 ______________________________________________ -------- 7 Acrobasis mini'lnella Ragonot _______________________________________ 10 Acrobasis vaccinii Riley _ ___ _______________________________________ 14 Acrobasisindigenella (Zeller) ______________, ________________________ 18 , Acrobasis caryae Grote ______________________________________________ 23 Acrobasi.q nuxvorella Neunzig ________________________________________ 28 AC'I"obasis elyi Neunzig ______________________________________________ 34 • Acrobasis evanescentella Dyar ______________ __________________________ 37 Acrobasis angusella Grote _____________ ____________________________ 40 Acrobasis demotella Grote ____________________________________________ 43 Acrobasis I5tigmella. Dyar ___________________________________________ 46 Acrobasis exsulella (Zeller) ________________________________________ 50 Acrobasis feltella Dyar ______________________________________________ 54 Acrobasis iuglandis (LeBaron) ._ ___________________________________ 57 Acrobasis caryalbella Ely ___________________________________________ 63 Acrobasis kearfottella Dyar _____.____________________________________ 67 Acrobasis caryivorella Ragonot ________________________________________ 70 Acrobasis sylviella Ely __ ____________________________________________ 75 Acrobasis ostryella Ely ____________________________________________ 79 Acrobasis secundella Ely __________________. __ ------------------------ 82 Acrobasis coryliella Dyar ___________________________________________ 85 Acrobasis carpinivorella Neunzig ___________________________________ 89 Acrobusis cunulae Dyar and Heinrich ________________________________ 92 Acrobasis betulella Hulst __________________________________________ 96 Acrobasis rubrifasciella Packard ____________________________________ 100 Acrobasis comptoniella Hulst _______________________________________ 107 Acrobasis myricella Barnes and McDunnough ________________________ 112 Discussion ______________________________________________________-- 115 Literature cited __________ __________________________________________ 125 iv ",Taxonomy of Acrobasis Larvae and Pupae in Eastern North America (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) -\ • By H. H. NEUN;ZIG, Depm·tment of Entomology, North Ca1'olina State University Acrobasis is one of the largest genera within the subfamily • Phycitinae of the Pyralidae. Most of the known species are either Nearctic or Palaearctic in distribution, with the greatest number concentrated in eastern North America. The adults are small and cryptically colored. The larvae are secretive, usually living in parts of the host plant or in frass tubes on the host. Approximately one-half of the species in eastern North America feed as larvae on trees of the genus Car'ya of the family Juglandaceae, and the remaining species are associated with the genus Juglans of the Juglandaceae or with members of the Myricaceae, Betulaceae, Fagaceae, Rosaceae, or Ericaceae. Several eastern North American species are of economic impor­ tance, including the cranberry fruitworm (Acrobasis vaccinii Riley), the pecan nut casebearer (A. nuxvor'ella Neunzig), the pecan leaf casebearer (A. iuglandis (LeBaron», the leaf crumpler (A. indigenella (Zeller», and the birch tubemaker (A. betulella Hulst). As presently constituted, Acr'obasis is not a rigidly defined genus. On the basis of adult morphology, species complexes or groups are evident. For example, with both American and Euro­ pean species the primaries are smooth in some, but others possess a transverse median ridge of raised scales. Also, with males the apical process of the gnathos is si.mple in European species but either simple or trifurcate in American species. Within the species groups, however, the adults of some species are very similar in appearan£e, and several occurring in North America can be identified only with difficulty (Forbes 1923; Hein­ rich 1956).1 Not only is the coior pattern of the primaries and body similar, but the male and female genitalia of most species are of limited diagnostic value. Many of these similar species also occur 1 The year in italic after the authors' names indicates the reference in Literature Cited, p. 125. 1 2 TECHNICAL BULLETIN 1457, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE on the same or closely related hosts as larvae. A number of the species listed by Heinrich in his revision were included on a tenta­ tive basis inhdmuch as he could not, by examining the adults, es­ tablish with certainty whether he was dealing with discrete taxa. Literature on the appearance of the larvae and pupae of AC1'O­ basis is mostly of limited value because of inadequate descriptions and drawings or photographs ·with insufficient detail (Saunders 1870; Grote 1881a; Riley 1884, 1885; Beutenmuller 1889, 1890; Hulst 1890; Ragonot 1893; Felt 1909; Herrick 1909; Gill 1917a, 1917b, 1925; Scammel 1917; Weiss 1921; Forbes 1923; Bilsing 1927; Franklin 1928, 191;.8; Quaintance and Siegler 1931; Daviault 1937; Moznette et al.1940; Craighead 1950; Peterson 1956; Phil­ lips et al. 1964; Osburn et al. 1966; Balduf 1966). The only de­ tailed comparative :5tudies of larvae have been reported by Hinton (1943) and Hasenfuss (1960). Hinton treated AC1'obas,is jug landis and A. nuxvol'ella (ca1'yae). Hasenfuss did not provide informa­ tion on American species but included solely European species of the genus, Mosher (1916) in her study of Acrobasis (Mineola) indigenella and A. 1'ubri/asciella Packard gave limited but useful data on pupal morphology within the genus. There is considerable information available on the biology of the immature stages of ACl'obasis species. Most of it, however, applies to species of economic importance. Information on the biology of many of the noneconomically important species, partic­ ularly those in NOl,th America, is very fragmentary. The purpose of this bulletin is to provide keys and descriptions for the last-stage larvae and pupae of most of the ACl'obasis spe­ .. cies in eastern North America. Dab:t are also given on the host plants, distribution, biology, and associated parasites of these spe­ cies. In addition, the status of sever&.l nominal species is clarified, and affinities within the genus, as suggested by the morphology and biology of the immature stages, are discussed. .. Materials and Methods Most of the larvae and pupae studied were obtained in collecting trips from 1966 to 1970 in North Catolina, New England, and Florida. Usually last-stage larvae were collected. About one-third were preserved and the remainder were reared on a part of the host plant to obtain pupae and associated adults. Preserved larvae and pupae were initially fixed in KAAD (a mixture of kerosene, alcohol, acetic acid, and dioxane) and later transferred to 80-per­ cent alcohol. TAXONOMY OF ACROBASIS LARVAE AND PUPAE 3 Larvae were reared in I-pint paper enclosures, which contained 2 to 3 cm. of moist sand. The sand was