FIGURES 9 13 - uploaded by Rajesh Kumar
Content may be subject to copyright.
Larvae of F. melanoleuca. 9. Larva removed from the abdomen of P. perpusilla; 10. After removing waxy material from the body of the larva; 11. Proboscis for sucking fluids from the body of the host P. perpusilla; 12. Uniserial crochets on abdominal prolegs; 13. Uniserial crochets on anal prolegs.
Source publication
The parasitic lepidopteran insect, Fulgoraecia melanoleuca (Fletcher) has been reported as an ectoparasitoid of Pyrilla perpusilla (Walker) from the Indian subcontinent. For the first time, the complete morphology, field biology, egg laying behavior, larval pupal, and adult morphology, including male and female gentialic features, are described and...
Similar publications
Serbia has recently begun facing a serious problem with the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål), which was first recorded in October 2015. This species belongs to the Pentomidae family and is notorious for causing extensive damage to plants. During the winter, it tends to gather in urban areas, such as houses and different man-made...
Armored scales and their parasitoids were collected and identified from avocado orchards in 2 municipalities of the state of Mexico; the population fluctuation and parasitism of the 3 most abundant armored scales also were determined. The armored scales species (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) identified were Hemiberlesia cyanophylli (Signoret), Davidsonas...
Citations
... The parasitoid was reared on P. perpusilla maintained on sugarcane leaves under laboratory conditions (Sharma and Shera 2021). The emerging adults from the cocoons were sexed morphologically based on forewings (Kumar et al. 2015). Freshly emerged males and females were transferred to glass jars having sugarcane leaves and allowed to mate and lay eggs on these leaves. ...
... Pyrilla perpusilla culture maintained on sugarcane leaves were used for rearing of the parasitoid in the aluminium cages. Males and females were sexed morphologically (Kumar et al. 2015) and were placed in cages to allow for mating and egg laying on sugarcane leaves. As a food for the adults, a cotton swab was dipped in a 10% honey solution and hung in each cage. ...
... Pupal/chrysalis survival (%) = Number of pupae from which the adult emerged 100 were normally distributed and analysed using ANOVA. Sex-ratio The parasitoid adults emerging from cocoons were differentiated morphologically into males and females based on their wing colour and antennal structure (Kumar et al. 2015). The sex-ratio was calculated by dividing the total Results number of males with the total number of females. ...
Fulgoraecia melanoleuca (Fletcher) is a key parasitoid of Pyrilla perpusilla (Walker) nymphs and adults in the sugarcane ecosystem. The effect of different host stages, viz. five nymphal instars and adults (male and female) on the biological parameters, i.e. larval survival, larval period, pupal/chrysalis survival, pupal/chrysalis period and total development period of F. melanoleuca was examined. When 1st instar nymphs were exposed to the parasitoid, the host died completely without presenting any symptoms of parasitism.The larval survival, larval period, pupal/chrysalis survival, pupal/chrysalis period and total development period of the parasitoid was less on the younger nymphal instars as compared to later instars of the host. Likewise, adult longevity of parasitoid whose larvae had fed on younger instars lived for shorter period of time as compared to later instars. Between the sexes, the survival and development parameters of parasitoid was more when reared on female adult host as compared to male adults. The sex-ratio of F. melanoleuca adults was female-biased on all the host stages. However, more female progeny was observed in later nymphal instars and female adult host. The fecundity of F. melanoleuca increased with increase in host age and was comparatively more in the later nymphal instars. However, 4th instar pyrilla nymphs serving as host for F. melanoleuca favoured a significant increment in number of eggs laid by the parasitoid females as compared to 3rd and 5th instar nymphs. Among the host stages, 4th instar nymphs and adult females were more suitable for the parasitoid, F. melanoleuca.
... The sugarcane leafhopper, Pyrilla perpusilla (Walker) (Hemiptera: Lophopidae) is a serious sucking pest widely distributed in Asian countries including India (Kumar et al. 2015;Mahesh et al. 2019), China (Liang resulting in yellowing and in case of heavy infestation, the leaves gradually turn pale in color and dry up. The development of sooty mold on the leaves due to secretion of honeydew reduces the photosynthetic activity of the plant. ...
... The emerging parasitoid adults from the cocoons (pupae) were differentiated on the basis of morphological characters. Males have bipectinate antenna and an off white outer margin of forewing and hind wing while females have thread like antenna with grey black forewing and dark grey hind wing (Kumar et al. 2015). Freshly emerged males and females were paired and kept in aluminum cages for mating and subsequent egg laying on sugarcane leaves. ...
Background
Fulgoraecia melanoleuca (Fletcher) (Lepidoptera: Epipyropidae) (= Epipyrops or Epiricania melanoleuca ) is an important koinobiont nymphal and adult ectoparasitoid of sugarcane leafhopper, Pyrilla perpusilla (Walker) (Hemiptera: Lophopidae). The study aimed to evaluate whether and to what extent this parasitoid effects the fitness of immature (five nymphal stages) and adult (♂ and ♀) stages of its host P. perpusilla .
Results
The nymphal mortality was significantly more in the younger nymphs, and it decreased as the host aged. The exposure of the first stage host nymphs to the parasitoid resulted in 100% mortality. However, the nymphal mortality rates in second, third, fourth and fifth nymphal stage were 94.0, 75.0, 38.0 and 41.0%, respectively. Furthermore, the longevity of surviving nymphs was prolonged significantly in the later stages. None of the parasitized first to fourth stage nymphs survived as normal adult. In case of the parasitized fifth nymphal stage, 18.0% adults were normal; however, their longevity was comparatively shorter than their un-parasitized counter parts. When male and female adults of leafhopper were offered to the parasitoid, significant differences were found in mortality of parasitized and un-parasitized adults for both sexes. Further, parasitoid-induced prolongation in the longevity of the surviving parasitized adults was also observed.
Conclusions
Overall, the parasitoid F. melanoleuca had detrimental effects on host fitness and thus played a significant role as a biological control agent in suppressing the sugarcane leafhopper population. This study will clarify host-parasitoid relationship, developing mass rearing protocol under laboratory conditions and implementing effective strategies for augmentative releases of parasitoids in biological control program against P. perpusilla in sugarcane ecosystem.
... The Epipyropidae is a small moth family whose larvae are all thought to be ectoparasites on hemipterans, particularly on cicadas and fulgoroid planthoppers (Jeon, Kim, Tripotin, & Kim, 2002). This family includes 32 species assigned to nine genera of two subfamilies, found in tropical and warm temperate regions (Common, 1990;Davis, 2010;Davis & Frack, 1987;Dyar, 1906;Heppner, 1991;Jeon et al., 2002;Kumar, Mittal, Chutia, & Ramamurthy, 2015). ...
Species of the family Epipyropidae are infrequently collected due to their ectoparasitic lifestyle and have therefore received little study. Based on our morphological and molecular analyses, all specimens found parasitizing different species of cicadas in China belong to one species, Epipomponia nawai (Dyar). The species Epipomponia oncotympana Yang (nom. invalid.) was found to be identical with E. nawai. The morphology of the egg, larva, pupa, and adult of E. nawai is described, including the ultrastructure of the egg and larva. Seven types of sensilla and their distribution pattern on the antennae of both females and males of E. nawai are examined using scanning electron microscopy, resulting in a better understanding of sexual dimorphism in this species. Population differentiation and phylogenetic relationships amongst populations of E. nawai occurring in China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan are analysed. The intraspecific genetic distances suggest a low genetic differentiation which is also consistent with the minor morphological variations. The biogeographic analysis reveals that the Qinling Mountain Range, which is geographically the border of the subtropical and temperate zones, is presumably one of the most important geographic barriers to the gene flow of E. nawai. Our molecular phylogenetic analysis based on the COI gene of E. nawai indicates that frequent gene flow might have occurred in the China mainland, Taiwan and Japan islands, and possibly also the Ryukyu Islands after the Quaternary ice ages. In addition, the biology and behaviour of both larvae and adults of E. nawai were also observed, and results indicate the possibility of bisexual reproduction in this moth. Our results increase the understanding of the morphology, diversity, distribution, and biology of this unusual moth, and should aid future studies on patterns of population differentiation, biogeography, and reproductive behaviour in other epipyropids.
... [5] In 1983, the genus Epipyrops was transferred to Epiricania and the insect was renamed as Epiricania melanoleuca (Fletcher). [6] According to online Lepindex, [7] the genus Epiricania has been transferred to Fulgoraecia and the insect was again renamed as Fulgoraecia melanoleuca (Fletcher). ...
... The coupling time noted under field conditions is 10 to15 minutes (Figure-III). [6] The female started oviposition immediately and laid up to 234 to 450 eggs. The eggs were light brown in colour and mostly lay on the leaf margin near to the cocoon. ...
... Dark brown colour patches are present on the dorsal surface of female abdomen segment of pupa, and fewer light brown patches are present on all dorsal surfaces of male abdomen segment of pupa. [6] ...
Sugarcane pyrilla is the most destructive pest in subtropical India. The
outbreaks of the sugarcane pyrilla have been reported in different parts of
India from time to time. The original host of P. perpusilla is unknown and it
has been recorded that this pest has feeding and reproducing on a wide range
of plants other than sugarcane. The pyrilla directly or indirectly affects sugar
yield and quality. Losses ranged from 2 to 34 per cent in sucrose content of
the cane and from 3 to 26 per cent in the purity of the sugar have been
recorded.
Farmers were generally used to adopt various chemical insecticides for
the control of sugarcane pyrilla. However, the incidence of pyrilla increased
with the age of the crop and after six months it is very difficult to apply any
control measures. P. perpusilla is attacked by sixteen species of natural
enemy in India among them, F. melanoleuca exhibited as the most
successful parasitoid during past 2-3 decades against P. perpusilla. Large
scale mass production of F. melanoleuca can be possible and could harvest
more than 10,000 eggs of the ecto-parasites daily, for field release
programme. Pyrilla can be effectively management by releasing this potent
natural enemy, F. melanoleuca @ one lakh eggs (250 egg mass) and two
thousand cocoons per hectare area. Now-a-days the farmers are never
applying any insecticide for the management of pyrilla as only due to selfperpetuation
of F. melanoleuca under natural condition and its wider
adaptability.
... In F. melanoleuca the fully-grown larva leaves the host, pupates on the surface of the leaf and spends 4–11 days as pupa. The host P. perpusilla often dies after it has been released by the epipyropid parasitoid (Kumarasinghe and Wratten 1996, Kumar et al. 2015). At the contrary, in Paraflata the parasitic larva don't leave the host for a plant, but pupates into a silk cocoon attached to the abdomen of the planthopper, which itself remains alive and continue to carry the non-feeding pupa. ...
The Malagasy planthopper genus Paraflata is revised. To the three previously known species (P. seminigra, P. kingdomi and P. dewalschei) two new ones are added and described: P. masoalae sp. nov. and P. unispinosa sp. nov. Their distribution is discussed and a bipolar distribution (from mountain and coastal biotopes) is reported for P. dewalschei. During morphological investigations, several dead pupae of unidentified Lepidoptera Epipyropidae specimens were discovered attached to the planthopper abdomens. This is the first report for the genus Paraflata of these planthopper parasitic moths, which might be considered, in this particular interspecific interaction, rather as ectoparasites than as parasitoids.
The lepidopteran family of the Epipyropidae contains currently 32 known species of moths with larvae that are parasitic on plant and leafhoppers as well as cicadas. This paper focuses on behavioural aspects of the final instar of the cicada parasite Epipomponia nawai (Dyer 1904) on the cicada Hyalessa maculaticollis (de Motschulsky 1866) and represents only the second report of the species from South Korea. This species is a new host for E. nawai in Korea, since in the past it had only been reported once from Meimuna opalifera and Oncotympana fuscata in Korea. Molecular relationships between specimens of E. nawai collected in China, Japan, and Korea were analysed. The Chinese haplotypes fell into two groups: one clearly related to the Korean haplotype, but the other tightly affiliated with the Japanese haplotype. The findings suggest two routes for the occurrence of E. nawai in mainland China. Once the host cicada was dead or too weak to move, the caterpillar crawled away from it, seeking a place to pupate. Very little is known about parasitic Lepidoptera and therefore any information on host species or behavioural aspects is of importance.
Holometabolan metamorphosis is characterized by the morphophysiology of the juvenile stages, which is different from that of the adult. It is the developmental mode of the monophyletic superorder Endopterygota. Most holometabolan insects follow the long germ band embryo development, blastokinesis is relatively simple, and there are three embryonic cuticle depositions—EC1, EC2, and EC3—although EC2 may have become very simplified in some groups or even lost in flies. The postembryonic development goes through a number of larval instars, the pupa, and the adult. The larvae do not externally exhibit adult features, like wings, for example. These will be formed in the pupal stage from clusters of imaginal precursor cells, which sometimes adopt a disc-like shape, that lie in the larval epidermis. Larval types are very diverse although they have been classified into four categories: protopod, polypod, oligopod, and apodous. The pupa is generally quiescent and bridges the morphological divergence between the larva and the adult. There are two types of pupa: decticous and adecticous, which can be further categorized into two subtypes: exarate and obtect. In addition to this diversity of larval morphologies in different species, there is the phenomenon of hypermetamorphosis or the occurrence of a diversity of morphologies within the larval period of the same species. Hypermetamorphosis is more frequent among parasitoid species, and two main types can be distinguished: hypermetamorphosis with a wandering first larval instar and with a sedentary first larval instar. Another type of postembryonic development is the contracted life cycle of cavernicolous Coleoptera, characterized by a dramatic reduction in the number of larval instars.
Larvae are a peculiar developtmental stage of holometabolous insects, occupy a considerable part of the insect life history, and contribute significantly to the prosperity of
Holometabola. The insect larvae are important to the study of insect taxonomy, ecology, and evolutionary biology, and cause direct injury to crops and other valuable materials of humans. However, since larvae are more difficult to obtain compared with adults, the most reliable way to get larvae is to rear the identified adults. For these reasons, the knowledge of insect larvae is far from satisfactory, especially for some small groups like Mecoptera.
Mecoptera is one of the most primitive lineages of Holometabola, remarkable for bearing
a pair of compound eyes on the larval head capsule, and is considered important to the study of the evolutionary origion of holometabolous insects. The Mecoptera contains more than 600 extant speceis across the world, assigning to nine families. The larvae of these families exhibit dramatically morphological and biological diversity, including the aquatic campodeiform larvae of Nannochoristidae, the herbivorous scarabaeiform larvae of Boreidae, and the edaphic eruciform larvae of Bittacidae and Panorpidae. These larvae are even more diverse morphologically and biologically on familial or generic levels, and may provide valuable characters for phylogenetic analysis.
In this study, the larvae of 33 species in Panorpidae, two species in Bittacidae, and one species in Panorpodidae were obtained through rearing in the past six years. The larvae were examined and compared morphologically using light and scanning electron microscopy. The morphology of larval mouthparts in related to their feeding behaviour, and the morphological diversity associated with habitat divergence were discussed. The phylogenetic analysis of Panorpidae was conducted on the basis of these larval morphological characters.
The larval feeding habits vary among Bittacidae, Panorpidae, and Panorpodidae, and the
larval mouthparts are also diverse morphologically among these families. In Panorpidae the larvae are saprophagous, consuming both the soft tissues and chitinous cuticle of dead insects. The molar regions of panorpid larvae bear numerous tuberculate teeth for grinding solid food. In Bittacidae the larvae are also saprophagous, feeding especially on the inner semi-fluid tissues of dead insects, and discard the empty exoskeleton on the ground. The molar regions of bittacid larvae are furnished with long spines for preventing larger particles from entering the pharynx. In Panorpodidae, however, the larval feeding habits are unknown. The molar regions of panorpodid larvae are glabrous, likely unsuitable for ginding solid food. It is more likely that these edaphic larvae of Panorpodidae feed on tissue of juice of the tender roots of
some specific host plants.
The larvae of Panorpidae are usually edaphic, living in/on the soil. However, based on
our current investigations, the specific living habits of larvae are diverse significantly on the generic level. The larvae of Dicerapanorpa are epedaphic, living predominantly on the soil surface. The larvae of Cerapanorpa are semi-epedaphic, staying either on the soil surface or beneath the soil horizon. The larvae of Panorpa are nocturnally active, staying in the soil during the day and crawling on the soil surface in the night. The larvae of Neopanorpa are euedaphic, living concealedly in the soil. The larval morphological features in these genera are also diverse associated with their living habits. In order to increase their survival opportunities, the larvae of Dicerapanorpa and Cerapanorpa all have darkish dorsal integuments, simulating the coloration of the soil as camouflage. The larvae of Panorpa are even nocturnally active to decrease the predation risk from the visually hunting predators. The larvae of Dicerapanorpa, Cerapanorpa, and Panorpa, all possess well-developed visual organs (prominent compound eyes) and locomotive organs (thoracic legs and prolegs). However, the euedaphic larvae of Neopanorpa adopt no camouflage strategy, but have additional shallow furrows on their head capsules to enhance the mechanical strength during locomotion beneath the soil horizon.
The phylogenetic analysis of Panorpidae was conducted on the basis of the larval
morphological characters for the first time. The phylogeny of 33 panorpid species was
reconstructed with maximum parsimony based on 52 larval morphological chararcers,
including 27 numeric characters and 25 continuous characters, employing Panorpodes
kuandianensis (Panorpodidae) and Bittacidae as the outgroups. The result shows that the
larval morphological characters support the current taxonomical system of Panropdiae. Most of the panorpid genera, including Neopanorpa, Dicerapanorpa, Sinopanorpa, and
Cerapanorpa, were reconfirmed to be monophyly. Panorpa, however, is supposed to be a
paraphyletic group and may need further split. The topology of the phylogenetic tree shows that the Panorpidae are basally splited into two clades, Neopanorpa is the sister group of all the other species. The monotypic genus Furcatopanorpa is the basal lineage of the latter. The genus Cerapanorpa is the sister group of the monophy comprising Dicerapanorpa and Sinopanorpa.
Example insect natural history data (PDF document)
