Sumitrosis ancoroides (Schaeffer)

(Figs. 20, 78, 149–150)

Reared specimens. NORTH CAROLINA: Durham Co., Durham, Leigh Farm Park, 14.vi.2017, em. 21–30.vi.2017, T . S. Feldman, ex Stylosanthes biflora, # CSE3844 (2 adults, ZFMK) ; OKLAHOMA: Payne Co., Mehan, 36.014339° N, - 96.996744° W, 6.vii.2015, em. 15.vii.2015, M.W. Palmer, ex Strophostyles helvola, # CSE1813 (1 adult, MLBM); 28.vii.2015, em. by 1–4.viii.2015, M.W. Palmer, ex Strophostyles helvola, # CSE1899 (2 adults, ZFMK); 26.v.2016, em.?, M.W. Palmer, ex Strophostyles leiosperma, # CSE3071 (2 adults, MLBM / ZFMK); 1.ix.2017, em. 15–17.ix.2017, M.W. Palmer, ex Strophostyles helvola, # CSE4278 (1 adult, MLBM) .

Photographed mines. OKLAHOMA: Payne Co., Mehan, 36.014339° N, - 96.996744° W, 13.v.2016, M.W. Palmer, Strophostyles leiosperma .

Hosts. Fabaceae: Strophostyles helvola (L.) Elliott, S. *leiosperma (Torr. & A. Gray) Piper, S. umbellata (Muhl. ex Willd.) Britton, Stylosanthes biflora (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb. (Butte 1969; Ford & Cavey 1985; Clark et al. 2004). Rouse & Medvedev (1972) reported this beetle “on soybean” in Arkansas, and Staines’ (2006) listing of Glycine max (L.) Merr. as a larval host appears to be based only on this record.

Biology. Ford & Cavey’s (1985) statement that eggs “are laid in clusters on the underside of host leaves” is incorrect. Each egg is embedded singly in a pit chewed in the lower leaf surface and is visible from the upper surface (Fig. 20). The larva forms a flat blotch mine that is only visible on the upper leaf surface (Fig. 78), easily distinguished from the puffy, full-depth blotches of Odontota horni on Strophostyles . On S. leiosperma, mines were found on cotyledons as well as on full-sized leaves. Frass is in scattered, minute, elongate pellets, forming a denser, dark patch adjacent to the egg. The larva is yellowish and the pupa is orange. Adults “window-feed” in irregular patches on the lower leaf surface, leaving the upper epidermis intact.

Parasitoids. An adult Pnigalio sp. ( Eulophidae) emerged from one of the mines collected in North Carolina (CSE3893, BMNH). An adult of Chrysocharis occidentalis (Girault) ( Eulophidae) emerged in a rearing vial that contained mines of both Odontota horni and Sumitrosis ancoroides on Strophostyles helvola (CSE1822, BMNH).

Notes. This is the first record of Sumitrosis ancoroides from North Carolina. The North Carolina specimens (Fig. 149), reared from Stylosanthes, belong to a different BIN (BOLD:ADP0312) than the Oklahoma specimens (Fig. 150), reared from Strophostyles (BOLD:ADF6919). The two BINs are separated by 10.72%, suggesting that S. ancoroides may represent a species complex. Ours are the only specimens in either BIN.