Dimorphic Sessile Apterae of the Aphid Neothoracaphis glaucae (Hemiptera) on the Evergreen Oak Quercus glauca

Shigeyuki Aoki,Takema Fukatsu,Keigo Uematsu,Utako Kurosu,Mayako Kutsukake

doi:10.1155/2019/1280414

Abstract

Species of the aphid genus Neothoracaphis (Hormaphidinae, Nipponaphidini) produce tiny, sessile, sclerotized apterous adults on leaves of oaks. Among Japanese species, “N. glaucae” has been known to have the largest, ovate apterae, while “N. saramaoensis” has smaller, elongated oval apterae on Quercus glauca. Through examining mitochondrial DNA sequences of Japanese Neothoracaphis species, we found that the two are the same species with a clear dimorphism. Neothoracaphis glaucae (Takahashi) was adopted as the valid name for the species. In Tokyo, Japan, apterae of the smaller type are abundantly seen throughout the year, and those of the larger type are generally few in number from summer to autumn. Alates, which are supposed to be sexuparae, appear from November to January. Nymphs developing into the alates are covered with long, semitransparent, bristle-like wax filaments. We conclude that N. querciphaga, N. elongata, and N. yanonis are distinct species and that both the genus Neothoracaphis and the three Neothoracaphis species other than N. yanonis form monophyletic groups among Japanese Nipponaphidini species we have examined.

Highlights

Introduction e aphid genusNeothoracaphis belongs to the tribe Nipponaphidini (Hormaphidinae, Aphididae), and about ten nominal species have been reported from East Asia [1,2,3]
Molecular Phylogenetic Analyses. e result of our molecular phylogenetic analysis based on mitochondrial ribosomal DNA sequences is summarized as the maximum likelihood tree (Figure 6)
We found that all samples of Neothoracaphis species formed a monophyletic group with 87% bootstrap support and that both four samples of N. yanonis and the remaining 15 samples of the other Neothoracaphis species formed monophyletic groups with 100% bootstrap support

Summary

Introduction

Introduction e aphid genusNeothoracaphis belongs to the tribe Nipponaphidini (Hormaphidinae, Aphididae), and about ten nominal species have been reported from East Asia [1,2,3]. Except for one species, Neothoracaphis yanonis, which migrates between Distylium spp. In Japan, five nominal species have been recorded: N. yanonis on Q. serrata, Q. dentata, and Q. crispula (and on Distylium racemosum) [5, 8], N. elongata on Q. myrsinifolia, Q. sessilifolia, and Q. acuta [8, 9], N. querciphaga on Q. myrsinifolia [8], N. saramaoensis on Q. glauca [8], and N. glaucae on Q. glauca [8]. Neothoracaphis glaucae produces apterous adults that are the largest among the Japanese species and ovate in shape (Figure 1(a)), while N. saramaoensis produces apterae which are smaller and elongated oval in shape (Figure 1(b)); the two seem to be very different from each other. In the course of the present study, we found, in some colonies of the focal species N. glaucae/saramaoensis, bizarre wingpadded nymphs

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