Gelechioidea: Gelechiidae: Gelechiinae: Anarsia
peach twig borer (A. lineatella)
Ananarsia
Specimens identified as Ananarsia lineatella Zeller are non-reportable (*Non-Rep*).
The following characters can be used to diagnose A. lineatella; they may not be representative of the entire genus:
Most (>95%) of the records of "Anarsia spp." in the PestID database are from Nigera on hosts such as Gnetum, Malvaceae, Pterocarpus, and Vernonia. Nearly all of these records are erroneous and represent species of gelechiids in other genera. In addition, other PestID records from the Old World on non-legume hosts need confirmation. Confirmed records are listed below; please see the detailed Identification Authority section for more information.
| Origin | Host(s) |
|---|---|
| Europe | Prunus |
| Canada | Prunus |
Ananarsia lineatella found throughout Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and possibly localized areas of Asia north of India. It has been introduced into North America, where it is widespread (Carter 1984Carter 1984:
Carter, D. J. 1984. Pest Lepidoptera of Europe with special reference to the British Isles. Dr. W. Junk Publishers. Series Entomologica vol. 31. 431 pp.). Other Anarsia are recorded from Asia and Africa.
Anarsia larvae may be identified to A. lineatella (*Non-Rep*) if they possess most of the above morphological characters, are found on stone fruit, and originate from North America, Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. Larvaelarva:
the stages between the egg and pupa of those insects having complete metamorphosis
from Asia and possibly Africa on legumes may be identifiable to Anarsia sp. if they possess most of the above morphological characters, but in most cases it is safer to leave these identifications at the family level.
The larvalarva:
the stages between the egg and pupa of those insects having complete metamorphosis
of A. lineatella was at least partially described by Keifer (1935)Keifer (1935):
Keifer, H. H. 1935. California microlepidoptera VII. The monthly bulletin of the Department of Agriculture, State of California (Sacramento) 24: 195-218., Peterson (1962)Peterson (1962):
Peterson, A. 1962. Larvae of insects: an introduction to Nearctic species. Part I: Lepidoptera and plant infesting Hymenoptera. Columbus, Ohio. 315 pp., MacKay (1972)MacKay (1972):
MacKay, M. R. 1972. Larval sketches of some microlepidoptera, chiefly North American. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 88: [1]-83., Weisman (1986)Weisman (1986):
Weisman, D. M. 1986. Keys for the identification of some frequently intercepted lepidopterous larvae. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine series 81-47. 64 pp., Stehr (1987) and Schnitzler et al. (2012)Schnitzler et al. (2012):
Schnitzler, F. R., J. W. Haw, L. Kumarasinghe and S. George. 2012. Identification Guide to Lepidoptera Larvae Intercepted on Trade Pathways. Bulletin of the Entomological Society of New Zealand 15. 105 pp.. The larvalarva:
the stages between the egg and pupa of those insects having complete metamorphosis
is easily recognized by a combination of characters. Among those listed by Keifer (1935)Keifer (1935):
Keifer, H. H. 1935. California microlepidoptera VII. The monthly bulletin of the Department of Agriculture, State of California (Sacramento) 24: 195-218. and MacKay (1972)MacKay (1972):
MacKay, M. R. 1972. Larval sketches of some microlepidoptera, chiefly North American. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 88: [1]-83., the most obvious are a prespiracular group that surrounds the prothoracic spiracle, a bisetosebisetose:
two setae
L group on A9, secondary setaeseta:
a hairlike projection of the body wall that is articulated in a socket; compare to spine
on the anal prolegsanal prolegs:
prolegs on the last abdominal segment (A10)
and shieldshield:
a sclerotized plate covering part of the dorsum of a segment
, the anal crochetscrochets:
sclerotized, hooklike structures, usually arranged in rows or circles on the prolegs of Lepidoptera larvae
divided into two groups, and the presence of an anal combanal comb:
the mesal sclerotized prong ventrad of the anal plate and adjacent to the anus; used to eject frass
. In addition, the lateral setaeseta:
a hairlike projection of the body wall that is articulated in a socket; compare to spine
of the prothoraxprothorax:
the first thoracic segment
are in a horizontal line (Weisman 1986Weisman 1986:
Weisman, D. M. 1986. Keys for the identification of some frequently intercepted lepidopterous larvae. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine series 81-47. 64 pp.). The anal combanal comb:
the mesal sclerotized prong ventrad of the anal plate and adjacent to the anus; used to eject frass
figured by Weisman (1986)Weisman (1986):
Weisman, D. M. 1986. Keys for the identification of some frequently intercepted lepidopterous larvae. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine series 81-47. 64 pp. is diagramatic, see Peterson (1962: L15) and Carter (1984)Carter (1984):
Carter, D. J. 1984. Pest Lepidoptera of Europe with special reference to the British Isles. Dr. W. Junk Publishers. Series Entomologica vol. 31. 431 pp. for more accurate figures.
Accurate identification of A. lineatella requires restricting the origins to North America, Europe, Middle East, North Africa and possibly localized areas of Asia north of India (see map in Carter 1984Carter 1984:
Carter, D. J. 1984. Pest Lepidoptera of Europe with special reference to the British Isles. Dr. W. Junk Publishers. Series Entomologica vol. 31. 431 pp.). Weisman (1986)Weisman (1986):
Weisman, D. M. 1986. Keys for the identification of some frequently intercepted lepidopterous larvae. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine series 81-47. 64 pp. records A. lineatella from Latin America but we were unable to confirm this using Carter (1984)Carter (1984):
Carter, D. J. 1984. Pest Lepidoptera of Europe with special reference to the British Isles. Dr. W. Junk Publishers. Series Entomologica vol. 31. 431 pp., Zhang (1994)Zhang (1994):
Zhang B-C. 1994. Index of economically important Lepidoptera. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International. Wallingford, United Kingdom. 599 pp., Saunders et al. (1983)Saunders et al. (1983):
Saunders, J. L., A. B. S. King and C. L. Vargas. 1983. Plagas de cultivos en America Central. Una lista de referencia. Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza. Boletin tecnico 9. 90 pp. (which tends to include any citation from Central America even if doubtful), Heppner's (1984) checklist of Latin American Lepidoptera, or Gonzalez's (1989) work on quarantine Lepidoptera of Chile. In the Asian fauna, A. lineatella was absent from the Australian checklist (Nielson et al. 1996) and Robinson's et al. (1994) introduction to the microlepidoptera of Asia. Records from the Far East also need confirmation. The hosts must be stone fruits. Using these guidelines, the larvalarva:
the stages between the egg and pupa of those insects having complete metamorphosis
of A. lineatella is unmistakable.
The smallest larvalarva:
the stages between the egg and pupa of those insects having complete metamorphosis
we have seen that fits the above diagnosis to A. lineatella is 4 mm. Interestingly, it does not have the prothoracic spiracle fused to the prespiracular group, a classic character used to define A. lineatella. However, the anal crochetscrochets:
sclerotized, hooklike structures, usually arranged in rows or circles on the prolegs of Lepidoptera larvae
are divided, secondary setaeseta:
a hairlike projection of the body wall that is articulated in a socket; compare to spine
occur on the anal shieldanal shield:
the dorsal shieldlike covering of the last abdominal segment (= anal plate)
and the anal combanal comb:
the mesal sclerotized prong ventrad of the anal plate and adjacent to the anus; used to eject frass
is present. Thus, these larvaelarva:
the stages between the egg and pupa of those insects having complete metamorphosis
are still recognizable as A. lineatella even when very tiny. Full grown larvaelarva:
the stages between the egg and pupa of those insects having complete metamorphosis
are about 11 mm. long (Keifer 1935Keifer 1935:
Keifer, H. H. 1935. California microlepidoptera VII. The monthly bulletin of the Department of Agriculture, State of California (Sacramento) 24: 195-218.).
Most of the uncertainly relates to larvaelarva:
the stages between the egg and pupa of those insects having complete metamorphosis
identified as Anarsia or near Anarsia based on possessing one or two of the key characters of A. lineatella, for example, the prespiracular group surrounding the prothoracic spiracle or secondary setaeseta:
a hairlike projection of the body wall that is articulated in a socket; compare to spine
on the anal shieldanal shield:
the dorsal shieldlike covering of the last abdominal segment (= anal plate)
(J. Young pers. obsv.). The genus Anarsia occurs throughout Asia, especially on legumes in India (Zhang 1994Zhang 1994:
Zhang B-C. 1994. Index of economically important Lepidoptera. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International. Wallingford, United Kingdom. 599 pp., Robinson et al. 1994Robinson et al. 1994:
Robinson, G. S., K. R. Tuck, M. Shaffer and K. Cook. 1994. A field guide to the smaller moths of South-East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 309 pp.). One species is described from Nigeria on Guiera (Zhang 1994Zhang 1994:
Zhang B-C. 1994. Index of economically important Lepidoptera. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International. Wallingford, United Kingdom. 599 pp.). It might be possible to go to genus if the larvalarva:
the stages between the egg and pupa of those insects having complete metamorphosis
is from legumes, a common host for Old World species of Anarsia, but it is safer to leave these larvaelarva:
the stages between the egg and pupa of those insects having complete metamorphosis
at family unless they match several of the characters listed for A. lineatella. We did not find a larval description to any other Anarsia except lineatella, thus it is impossible to try to define the genus.
Most (>95%) of the records of "Anarsia spp." in the PestID database are from Nigera on hosts such as Gnetum, Malvaceae, Pterocarpus, and Vernonia. Nearly all of these records are erroneous and represent species of gelechiids in other genera. In addition, other PestID records for Anarsia from the Old World on non-legume hosts need confirmation.
Anarsia have been intercepted from the following locations:
Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, India, Iran, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, United Kingdom of Great Britain and N. Ireland, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe
Although the most commonly recorded origin in PestID, records from Nigeria are likely incorrect.
Anarsia have been intercepted on the following hosts. This list does not include hosts from the >1,600 Nigerian records in PestID that are likely incorrect. Other hosts that are not considered stone fruit or legumes are questionable:
Abelmoschus esculentus, Aleurites sp., Bergera koenigii, Brassica oleracea, Capsicum sp., Cuminum cyminum, Erythrina sp., Fagus sylvatica, Galphimia glauca, Gnetum africanum, Lamiaceae, Lansium domesticum, Litchi chinensis, Malus domestica, Malus sp., Malvaceae, Manilkara zapota, Momordica balsamina, Ocimum basilicum, Phaseolus sp., Phaseolus vulgaris, Prunus armeniaca, Prunus domestica, Prunus dulcis, Prunus persica, Prunus sp., Psidium guajava, Pterocarpus sp., Punica granatum, Rubus sp., Sechium edule, Tamarindus indica, Vernonia amygdalina, Zea mays
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