A REVISION OF THE OLD WORLD SPECIES OF THE SCIRPOPHAGA COMPLEX (LEPIDOPTERA: PYRALIDAE) A Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Study, with a Discussion on their Affinities by ANGOON LEWUANICH B Sc (Bangkok) A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Science of the University of London Department of Zoology and Applied Entomology Imperial College of Science and Technology South Kensington, London S W 7 2 AZ December, 1971 . 2 ABSTRACT The genus Scirpophaga is revised; the identity of each species studied is based on type material. The main characters used for separating the species are the genitalia. Thirty-five species belonging to seven species-groups are recognized. One genus and thirteen species are newly placed in synonymy. S. excerptalis is reinstated from synonymy. Ten species are transferred to Scirpophaga. S. praelata var xanthopygata Schawerda is raised to specific rank. One neotype for S. virginia Schultze and lectotypes for eight species are designated. Five species are described as new. The main characters of the Schoenobiinae and the general morphology of Scirpophaga are given. The zoogeography of the group is briefly discussed and a distribution map of each species is included. 3 CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 4 6 INTRODUCTION 10 MATERIALS AND METHODS 12 TAXOMIC HISTORY OF THE GENUS SCIRPOPHAGA 22 THE MAIN CHARACTERS OF SCHOENOBIINAE 4 4 444 27 THE GENERAL MORPHOLOGY OF THE SCIRPOPHAGA COMPLEX 34 BIOLOGY AND ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE 40 ZOOGEOGRAPHY OF THE SCIRPOPHAGA COMPLEX Genus SCIRPOPHAGA 62 Key to the species-groups 64 Species-Group PRAELATA 67 Key to species of praelata group 69 S. praelata 72 S. xanthopygata 85 S. nivella 89 S. parvalis 101 S. phaedima 104 S. gilviberbis 106 S. percna 110 S. imparella 112 S. xantharrenes 117 S. melanoclista 119 4 Species-Group EXCERPTALIS 122 Key to species of excerptalis group 124 S. excerptalis 127 S. magnella 137 S. xanthogastrella 141 S. brunnealis 145 S. ochritinctalis 147 S. bradleyi 150 S. khasis 152 S. flavidorsalis 154 S. melanostigma 156 S. tongyaii s 159 Species-Group OCCIDENTELLti • 162 Key to species of occidentella group.. 163 S. occidentella....i' 4.. $65 S. fusciflua 168 S. ochroleuca 171 S. virginia 173 S, subumbrosa 176 S. marginepunctella 179 S. serene 182. S. goliath 184 Species-Group LINEATA 186 .5 Key to species of lineata group 188, S. lineata 189 S. aurivena 192 S. auristrigella 194 Species-Group INCERTULAS 196 Key to species of incertulas group 197' S. incectulas 198 S. innotata 210 Species-Group GOTOI 214 S. gotoi 215 Species-Group WHALLEYI 218 S. whalleyi 219 SUMMARY 222 REFERENCES. 2 24 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study was carried out in the Department of Zoology and Applied Entomology, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. I am deeply grateful to Mr. H.E. Goto for supervising the course of this study and for his continuous assistance and encourage- ment throughout and to Mr. R.G. Davies for advice and clarification of some morphological problem. I am greatly indebted to Professor T.R.E. Southwood, Head of the Department, for the facilities provided at the College. Most of the material studied is in the collections of the British Museum (Natural History). I wish to express my sincere thanks to the Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History) and to Dr. P. Freeman, Keeper of Entomology, for their permission to study the museum material and for the many facilities provided. I am most grateful to the staff of the Lepidoptera Section for their kind help. My special gratitude is expressed to Mr. P.E.S. Whalley for his enthusiatic advice and suggestions concerning the field of investigation and research technique, and also for kindly affording much assistance in securing for study type material from other museums; to Dr. I.W.B. Nye for his help in clarifying some taxonomic and nomenclatorial problems and also for generously giving some of his time while visiting continental museums to locate and sort 7 certain type material essential to this study; to Dr. K.S.O. Settler who provided valuable suggestions, criticism and technical remarks; to Mr. M.Shaffer for giving much time in sorting out from the museum collections the material available for study. The photographs of the adult insects were taken in the Museum by Mr. P. York. Mr. B. Martin also took some of the Stereoscan photographs. My deep appreciation is also due to Dr. J.D. Bradley of the Commonwealth Institute of Entomology, London, who paid much interest in this study and gave valuable advice and suggestions. The help from the other members of the Commonwealth Institute of Entomology is also acknowledged with thanks. I wish to express my thanks to the following individuals and authorities for their kind, cooperation in making possible the loan of type-specimens and other material, for providing useful information and for the courtesies given when it was possible to visit some of the museums. AUSTRALIA: Dr. I.F.B. Common,Division of Entomology,C.S.I.R.O., Canberra. AUSTRIA: Dr. F. Kasy, Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna. BELGIUM: Dr. L.A. Berger and Dr. P. Basilewsky, Musee Royal de 1' Afrique Central°, Tervuren. CANADA: Dr. E.G. Munroe and Dr. A. Mutuura, Entomology Research Institute, Canada Department of Agriculture, Ottawa. 8 DENMARK: Dr. S.L. Tuxen and Mr. Niels L. Wolff, Universitetets Zoologiske Museum, Copenhagen. ENGLAND: Mr. E. Taylor, Hope Department, University Museum, Oxford. FRANCE: Dr. P. Viette, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. WEST GERMANY: Or. Th. Kruchow, Mrs. Szygiarto and Dr. H. Hohmann, Obersee Museum, Bremen; Dr. U. Roesler, Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut and Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn; Dr. H.G. Amsel, Landessammlungen fOr Naturkunde, Karlsruhe; Dr. W. Dierl, Zoologisches Staatsammlung des Bayerischen Staates, Munich. JAPAN: Dr. T. Kumata and Or. C. Watanabe, Entomological Institute, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo; Dr. S. Moriuti, Entomological Laboratory, College of Agriculture, University of Osaka Prefecture, Sakai, Osaka. NETHERLANDS: Dr. A. Diakonoff, Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden; Mr. H. Duffels and Mr. W.N. Ellis, ZoBlogisch Museum, Amsterdam. NIGERIA: Dr. G.H. Caswell, Institutefbr Agriculture Research, Ahmadu Bello University, North Central States of Nigeria. SWEDEN: Mr. B. Gustaysson, Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm. SWITZERLAND: Dr. Cl. Besuchet and Dr. B. Hauser, Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Geneva. TAIWAN: Dr. C.B. Chen, Emeritus Senior Entomologist and Mr. Tsong Hong Su, Taiwan Sugar Experiment Station, Tainan. 9 THAILAND: M.R. Chakratong Tongyai, the Minister of Agriculture; Dr. R. Syamananda, Dr. Anuwat Wattanapongsiri, Mt. Boonsom Meksongsee, Miss Vichuda Krithayakiern, Mrs. Pimonphorn Nanta and the late Mr. Phol Pholboon, Deportment of Agriculture, Bangkok; Miss B. Chamnanvej, Department of Rice, Bangkok. U.S.A.: Dr. J.F. Gates Clarke and Dr. Karl V. Krombein, Department of Entomology, Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum, Washington. Dr. E.G. Munroe of the Entomology Research Institute, Canada Department of Agriculture, has given much help during his two visits to the Museum. Finally, I wish to express my sincere thanks to the Colombo Plan Authorities, who made this study possible by providing me with a grant,and to the Thai Government for granting me study leave for postgraduate studies in the United Kingdom. 10 INTRODUCTION The rice and sugar-cane borers of the genus Scirpophaga have long been known as species of economic importance. Because of external similarity among the species in this group, the identities of the various species have boon very confused. The former descriptions are based mainly on the external morphology. The genitalia, except those of the Australian species, had not previously been studied. When sexual dimorphism occurs, the male and female have usually been described as two distinct species or even put in separate genera. The need for taxonomic revision of the species in Scirpophaga Was in great demand (Jepson, 1954), many entomologists having experienced considerable difficulty in identification. The latest paper on the systematic position of the species in this group by Butani (1970), who tried to establish the stability of the name of the sugar-cane top borer in India, has proved a failure since he misidentified the species and wrongly synonymized many names. The present work constitutes a revision of the taxonomy of Scirpophaga. Numerous specimens in the British Museum (Natural History) and on loan from many other museums have been examined. The type-specimens of all species are studied and dissected. A neotype and some lectotypes aro designated where necessary for the 11 stability of the nomenclature. Study of the Old World species of Scirpophaga revealed that the specimens in the various collections were badly mixed and showed that because of nom,Irous misidentifications the literature could often not be relied upon. In this work many of the taxonomic problems have been clarified. It is hoped that this will he useful not only to the taxonomist but to any entomologists dealing with the control of these stem borers. 12 MATERIALS AND METHODS Material studied. Most of the material studied is in the collections in the British Museum (Natural History). Various other museums kindly loaned type and additional materiel. The abbreviations used for the museums or institutions where types and materials are deposited are as follows:- ZM, Amsterdam = ZoBlogisch Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands. DA, Bangkok = Department of Agriculture,