Biodiversity Literature Repository
Published March 20, 2021 | Version v1
Journal article Restricted

Pentispa sallaei (Baly) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae: Chalepini) Established in Florida, USA, with the First Report of a Host Plant

Creators

Description

Schnepp, Kyle E., Riley, Edward G. (2021): Pentispa sallaei (Baly) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae: Chalepini) Established in Florida, USA, with the First Report of a Host Plant. The Coleopterists Bulletin 75 (1): 256-258, DOI: 10.1649/0010-065X-75.1.256, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1649/0010-065x-75.1.256

Files

Restricted

The record is publicly accessible, but files are restricted to users with access.

Linked records

Additional details

Identifiers

LSID
urn:lsid:plazi.org:pub:FFDAFFB5FFC5940BBF68FFE4FFA40117

Related works

Has part
Figure: 10.5281/zenodo.5330018 (DOI)

References

  • KYLE E. SCHNEPP Florida State Collection of Arthropods, Division of Plant Industry Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services 1911 SW 34th Street, Gainesville, FL 32608, USA keschnepp@gmail.com
  • Specimens of an unknown beetle causing damage to Barbados cherry (Malpighia emarginata DC. [Malpighiaceae]) from Davie, Florida (Broward County), were sent to KES for identification during November 2019 (FDACS sample E2019-6354). Adults were found grazing the upper leaf surfaces creating significant scarring (Fig. 4), and larvae, pupae, and teneral adults were found inside blotchtype leaf mines (Fig. 5). Investigation into the identification of the beetles led to a determination of Pentispa sallaei (Baly, 1886) (Figs. 1-2), a species known from Mexico with no recorded host plant. The above Florida collection represents the first record of the species from the USA and the first recorded host. Additional specimens were collected from the same locality during December 2019 and August 2020, and from 2.5 km northwest of the original locality during August 2020. Adult, larval, and pupal voucher specimens are deposited at the Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA, Gainesville, Florida) and the Texas A&M University Insect Collection (TAMU, College Station, Texas). Adult specimens were compared with specimens from Mexico in TAMU and the Edward G. Riley Collection (EGRC, College Station, Texas) (see specimens examined). A subsequent Florida record is available from a photograph taken on 2 July 2020 at Southwest Ranches, Florida (Broward Co.). This image shows two adults on heavily damaged foliage (Fig. 3).
  • Little information is known about P. sallaei. It was originally described in the genus Uroplata Chevrolat, 1836, at the time a catchall genus for tropical American hispine beetles that possess some degree of fusion in the terminal antennomeres (Baly 1886: plate IV, fig. 8). The type locality is Cuernavaca, Mexico. Noguera (1988) reported P. sallaei from Chamela, Mexico (Jalisco) and from the Mexican states of Morelos and Puebla. The species was later transferred to the genus Pentispa Chapuis, 1875 (Weise 1911). Staines (2015) listed one junior synonym, Pentispa rockefelleri Pallister, 1953; however, its placement as a synonym of P. sallaei is incorrect. Pentispa rockefelleri was maintained as a valid species in the catalogues of Uhmann (1964) and Wilcox (1983), and no reference where the two species are synonymized is known to us. Furthermore, there are many inconsistencies between the original descriptions of the two species.
  • Malpighia emarginata, commonly known as Barbados cherry or acerola, is a shrub or small tree grown commercially and in general plantings in subtropical Florida, having been introduced there as early as 1887 (Morton 1987). It is native to the Lesser Antilles, northeastern South America, and Brazil, and is naturalized elsewhere in the West Indies and most of tropical America (Morton 1987). Fruits are prized for their high concentrations of natural vitamin C, high antioxidant activity, and traditional medicine health benefits (Blancke 2016; Morton 1987). Other species of Malpighiaceae are among the reported host/food plants for two other species of Pentispa and for various species belonging to related genera of Chalepini (see Chalepini, in Staines 2015).
  • Specimens examined (adults, except where noted): USA: FLORIDA: Broward Co., SE Flamingo Gardens, 26.069455, -80.307453, XI-18- 2019, on Malpighia emarginata, P. Bissoondial [4 FSCA]; same data except: XII-3-2019 [3 EGRC, 4 FSCA, 6 TAMU]; same data except: VIII-27-2020 [5 adults, 4 larvae, 3 pupae TAMU]; Broward Co., NW Flamingo Gardens, 26.0844, -80.3243, VIII-27-2020, on Malpighia sp., P. Bissoondial [7 EGRC, 28 FSCA]. MEXICO: GUERRERO: Cacahuamilpa (3.3 km. S), 1495 m, VII-2-1992, C. Bellamy [3 EGRC]; Ixtapa (51 km. NE), Hwy. 200, VII-18-21-1985, J. E. Wappes [1 EGRC]; Taxco (6 mi. NE), 5600 0, VIII-14-1974, C. W. & L. O' Brien [1 EGRC]; Villa de Zaragosa (55 km. NE), VII-14-1985, R. Turnbow [2 EGRC]. MORELOS: Ca~ non de Lobos, km. 19, E of Cuernavaca, VII-3-1992, C. Bellamy [4 EGRC]; Cuernavaca (4.4 mi. E), VII-6-7-1974, Clark, Murray, Ashe, Schaffner, taken at light [1 TAMU]; same locality, VII-27-29-1976, Peigler, Gruetzmacher, R&M Murray, Schaffner [2 TAMU]. OAXACA: Teotitlan del Camino (8.3 mi. S), VII- 10-1981, Bogar, Schaffner, Friedlander [3 TAMU]. PUEBLA: Izucar de Matamoros (7 mi. S), VIII-9- 1962, D. S. Verity [1 EGRC]. New country record of the species for USA.
  • 258 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Blancke, R. 2016. Tropical Fruits and other Edible Plants
  • of the World. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and We thank Pattanjalid Bissoondial (USDA-APHIS) London, [4] + 339 pp. for recognizing the Davie, Florida specimens as Morton, J. F. 1987. Fruits of Warm Climates. Privately
  • Noguera, F. A. 1988. Hispinae y Cassidinae (Coleoptera: thank Jessica Seitcheck for allowing us to reproduce Chrysomelidae) de Chamela, Jalisco, Mexico. her photograph (Fig. 3) and for providing the asso- Folia Entomologia Mexicana 77: 277-311. ciated locality and date information. We thank Lyle Staines, C. L. 2015. Catalog of the hispines of the Buss (University of Florida, Entomology and Nem- world (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae). atology Department) for connecting us with Jessica https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/entomology/ Seitcheck, and we thank Douglas Caldwell and Marc collections-overview/coleoptera/catalog-hispines- Frank (both University of Florida, Institute of Food world (accessed July 2020). and Agricultural Sciences) for help with information Uhmann, E. 1964. Chrysomelidae: Hispinae, corrigenda
  • plementa, Pars 35, Fascicle 3 (W. O. Steel, editor). vided images used in Fig. 2 and helped assemble the W. Junk, 's-Gravenhage, 399-490. plate. Finally, we thank the Florida Department of Weise, J. 1911. Coleopterorum Catalogus. Pars 35. Agriculture and Consumer Services - Division of Chrysomelidae: Hispinae. W. Junk, Berlin, Pars Plant Industry for their support on this contribution. 35: 1-94.
  • Wilcox, J. A. 1983. Volume 8. Family 129. Chrysomelidae
  • Indies (R. H. Arnett, Jr., editor). Flora and Fauna Baly, J. S. 1886. Hispidae [pp. 1-124]. In: Biologia Publications, Gainesville, FL.
  • 6 Part 2 (F. D. Godman and O. Salvin, editors). (Received 9 October 2020; accepted 20 January 2021.
  • R. H. Porter, London, 249 pp. Publication date 20 March 2021.)