Redescription of immature stages of the shiitake fungus moth, Morophagoides moriutii Robinson (Lepidoptera: Tineidae)

Abstract

The shiitake fungus moth, Morophagoides moriutii Robinson, 1986 (Lepidoptera: Tineidae) is an important pest in the cultivation of the shiitake mushroom, Lentinula edodes (Berkeley) Pegler. Although (Moriuti, Forest Pests 25:8–13, 1976) illustrated the morphology of the adult and immature stages of M. ussuriensis (Caradja, 1920), (Osada et al., Appl Entomol Zool 48:15–20, 2013) concluded that it is not M. ussuriensis but M. moriutii on the basis of adults of the type specimen and redescibed the adults of M. moriutii. Furthermore, (Osada et al., Appl Entomol Zool 50:297–309, 2015a) taxonomically revised the Japanese species of the genus and recognized a total of eight species, five species of which are known as a pest of shiitake mushroom. Therefore, it is necessary to know the identity of the immature stages described by (Moriuti, Forest Pests 25:8–13, 1976). In this study, the morphology of the larva and pupa of true M. moriutii is redescribed in detail. As a result, these morphological characteristics are in agreement with the illustrations by (Moriuti, Forest Pests 25:8–13, 1976). In addition, DNA barcodes sequence of M. aquilonis were examined, it is revealed that the seven Morophagoides species are clearly distinguished.