Pleroneura subulata Shinohara, 1995

Shinohara, Akihiko, 2016, The sawfly genus Pleroneura (Hymenoptera, Xyelidae) of Japan: P. itoi n. sp. and a key to species, Zootaxa 4121 (4), pp. 495-500 : 499

Pleroneura subulata Shinohara, 1995

( Figs 1 G, H, 2F, J)

Pleroneura dahlii: Takeuchi, 1938: 204 (part).

Pleroneura subulata Shinohara, 1995: 832 ; Shinohara, 1998: 389; Blank, 2002: 202. See Shinohara (1995) for more references.

Distribution. Japan (Honshu, Shikoku); Korea; Russia (Primorskij kraj).

Host plant. Unknown.

Remarks. This species is known from three specimens from Honshu and two specimens from Shikoku, Japan and one specimen each from Korea and Primorskij kraj, Russia ( Shinohara 1995, 1998; Blank 2002). No additional specimens were available for the present study.

The host plant of P. subulata is unknown. The Japanese specimens were collected at the high altitudes of about 1100 and 2100 meters in central Honshu and about 1800 meters in Shikoku, where Abies veitchii Lindley (or its variety, var. sikokiana in Shikoku ) and A. homolepis (and A. mariesii Masters in Honshu ) occur ( Liu 1971). However, these fir species are not distributed in North Korea and Primorskij kraj, where A. nephrolepis is the only fir species recorded ( Liu 1971). If P. subulata feeds on Abies as in most of its congeners (Ohmart & Dahlsten 1977; Blank 2002), the sawfly is not strictly monophagous but associated with two or more fir species. Larval oligophagy has been demonstrated at least for the western Palaearctic P. coniferarum ( Hartig, 1837) (see Blank 2002). Following collection observations of adults of P. californica ( Ashmead, 1898) (see Smith et al. 1977), this life trait might apply to this Nearctic species as well.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Pleroneura spp., ♀. A, B, P. hi k o s an a, Mt. Kiyosumiyama, Chiba; C, D, P. itoi, holotype; E, F, P. piceae, Asahidake-onsen, Hokkaido; G, H, P. subulata, paratype, Meotobuchi-onsen, Tochigi.