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Prof. Hirowatari is the first in the world to elucidate the biology of wood-boring moths.
＊The following sentences are translated by the automatic translation function.
POINT
- The subfamily of the white-spotted moths of the family Pteromyscidae is widely distributed in tropical areas of the world. It has been suggested that the larvae of the species in this subfamily drill into wood, but the details of their life history were not known at all.
- We found that the larvae of the Itchensirona hirozu-kogae, a member of this subfamily, were found to live on wood immediately after it had died due to oak wilt, and we were the first in the world to elucidate their biology.
- This finding is expected to be useful for research on the evolution of lepidopteran masts and membranous organs.
SUMMARY
The subfamily of the white-spotted moths of the family Pteromyscidae is widely distributed in tropical areas and in other parts of the world. It has been suggested that the larvae of species in this subfamily puncture wood, but the details of their life history were not known at all. In addition, it was known that adult species of this subfamily have a membrane organ(*2), which is an exception among primary moths except for the family Lepidoptera, but the reason why only species of this subfamily have this organ was unknown.
In 2022, we found that larvae of the Itchensirona hirozu-kogae, a member of this subfamily, were able to develop on wood immediately after the oak had died due to "oak wilt," probably by using the punctures made by beetles. This study suggested that species of this subfamily, including this species, make multifaceted use of the membranous organs for male-female communication, for countermeasures against bats, and for searching for piercing thorny-headed larvae.
In 2022, amateur researcher Hiroshi Kodama found larvae of this species in the perforations of dead Quercus trees in Hashimoto City, Wakayama Prefecture, and raised them. Professor Toshiya Hirotari of the Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, identified the moth species and was the first in the world to describe the morphology of the larvae and pupae in detail.
The findings will be useful in research on the evolution of the elytra and membranous organs of lepidopterans*1. The intestinal flora of these lepidopteran larvae could also be used for applied research on the decomposition of persistent substances.
The results of this research were published in the Japanese journal "Lepidoptera Science" on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.
Research-related inquiries
Toshiya Hirowatari,Professor
Faculty of Agriculture,Department of Bioresource Sciences