Bulletin of Entomological Research (2003) 93, 545-551

N. Uechi, M. Tokuda, J. Yukawa, F. Kawamura, K.K. Teramoto and K.M. Harris (2003)
Confirmation by DNA analysis that Contarinia maculipennis (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) is a polyphagous pest of orchids and other unrelated cultivated plants
Bulletin of Entomological Research 93 (6), 545-551
Abstract: The cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene in mitochondrial DNA of 53 larvae of Contarinia maculipennis Felt from flower buds of various host plants, collected from Hawaii, Japan and Thailand was analysed. Monophyly of the clade including C. maculipennis from Hawaii, Thailand and Japan was supported. There was no sequential variation within the specimens from Hawaii and Japan, which differed from one another by 6 bp (1.37%). Three haplotypes were recognized in specimens from Thailand but differences from Hawaiian and Japanese specimens were small. Overall, there were no differences in the 146 deduced amino acid residues. It is therefore concluded that C. maculipennis is a polyphagous species that can develop on plant hosts representing at least seven botanical families. This pest of Dendrobium flower buds in glasshouses is considered to have entered Hawaii, Florida and Japan from Southeast Asia, and was recently intercepted in the Netherlands. Infestations have established and spread in orchid glasshouses, causing concern about the possibility of more extensive damage to orchids and to crops, such as bitter gourd, grown in close proximity to orchid glasshouses in Japan. The potential usefulness of DNA analysis in determining host plant ranges of morphologically identical cecidomyiid species that are currently identified solely on differences of host plant is emphasized.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Junichi Yukawa

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
identification/taxonomy
quarantine treatments/regulations/aspects

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Contarinia maculipennis		Thailand
	Contarinia maculipennis	Dendrobium (genus)	Japan
	Contarinia maculipennis	Dendrobium (genus)	U.S.A. (Hawaii)