New Rearing Records of Lepidoptera from Wild Sarsaparilla (Araliaceae: Aralia nudicaulis L.), with a Review of Species Reported from Nearctic Aralia spp.

Abstract

Abstract. Novel rearing records are combined with published and online records to provide an account of the North American Lepidoptera known to include Aralia spp. (Araliaceae) among their larval hosts. Apart from the monophagous shoot borer Papaipemaaraliae Bird and Jones (Noctuidae) and two Epermenia spp. (Epermeniidae) that are Apiales specialists, the remaining Aralia feeders are polyphagous species of Apatelodidae, Crambidae, Depressariidae, Erebidae, Gelechiidae, Geometridae, Lycaenidae, Noctuidae, Tineidae, and Tortricidae. New rearing records from wild sarsaparilla (A. nudicaulis L.) are documented for Herpetogramma thestealis (Walker) (Crambidae), Machimia tentoriferella Clemens (Depressariidae), Iridopsis ephyraria (Walker) (Geometridae), Orthosia rubescens (Walker) (Noctuidae), Amorbia humerosana Clemens, and Coelostathma discopunctana Clemens (Tortricidae); of these, only H. thestealis has been reported from Araliaceae previously. Three species of flies (Diptera: Chloropidae: Tricimba trisulcata (Adams); Drosophilidae: Scaptomyza pallida (Zetterstedt); Phoridae: Megaselia sp.) emerged from leaf rolls of H. thestealis, along with parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae: Eulophini). Apatelodes torrefacta (Smith) (Apatelodidae), Spilosoma virginica (Fabricius) (Erebidae), and Ectropis crepuscularia (Denis and Schiffermüller) (Geometridae) are newly reported from Aralia spp. based on online photographs of feeding caterpillars.