Syndemis afflictana (Tortricidae) is the only named member of the genus in North America. The insect is univoltine, occurring coast to coast from the Mid-Atlantic states north into the boreal forests of Canada. In the eastern United States the larvae have been reported feeding on a wide variety of woody plants including Abies, Alnus, Betula, Malus, and Salix . However, from Alberta westward the moth appears to be strongly associated with abietoid conifers. In California fir -feeding populations occur across the northern part of the state and along the Sierra Nevada. In addition, isolated populations are found on Monterey Pine ( Pinus radiata ) and Coast Redwood ( Sequoia sempervirens ). The P. radiata populations are known only from two of the three isolated, native stands of pine and are evidently multivoltine. The S. sempervirens populations also occur along the coast of central California but appear to be univoltine. This Syndemis is one of only a few species of Lepidoptera known to feed on Redwood. No populations of typical S. afflictana are known within 270 kilometers of these Redwood or Monterey Pine-feeding coastal populations. We sequenced 620 base pairs of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome oxidase I and 900 base pairs of the nuclear gene elongation factor 1 alpha for several individuals across the range of S. afflictana , including the Redwood and Monterey Pine feeding populations. We constructed a phylogeny based on molecular and morphological characters and compare them to topologies based on just one of the datasets. We present hypotheses about the evolution of the isolated Redwood and Monterey Pine feeding populations, and the implications for conservation biology and systematics.
Species 1: Lepidoptera Tortricidae Syndemis afflictana (dead leaf roller)
Keywords: Systematics, Conservation
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA