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Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Groundnut Leaf Miner Confirms the Occurrence of Aproaerema modicella Deventer (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) in Tamil Nadu, India


Affiliations
1 Department of Agricultural Entomology, Centre for Plant Protection Studies, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
2 Centre for Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India

The groundnut leaf miner (GLM), Aproaerema modicella Deventer (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), is a consequential pest of groundnut and other leguminous crops, which causes yield loss of up to 30–60% in groundnut in India. Nevertheless, some scientific studies have reported the occurrence of soybean moth, Aproaerema simplexella Walker attacking groundnut in India. The present study was conducted to assess the leaf miner species destroying groundnut in different regions of Tamil Nadu, India. Correctly identifying an insect species based on morphological and molecular techniques may pave the way for formulating accurate insect pest management strategies. Studies on the morphological characters of GLM confirmed that the species found in different districts of Tamil Nadu is A. modicella. However, BLAST search of GLM sequences indicated 100% similarity with A. simplexella. Since morphological characters of larva, pupa, adult, and male genitalia indicated the GLM species available in Tamil Nadu, as A. modicella, the sequences acquired from the present study have been submitted as the first entry in the NCBI database for species-level representation of A. modicella.

Keywords

Aproaerema modicella, Aproaerema simplexella, DNA barcoding, leguminous crops, morphological identification
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  • Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Groundnut Leaf Miner Confirms the Occurrence of Aproaerema modicella Deventer (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) in Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract Views: 86  | 

Authors

K. Murugasridevi
Department of Agricultural Entomology, Centre for Plant Protection Studies, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
S. Jeyarani
Department of Agricultural Entomology, Centre for Plant Protection Studies, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
S. Mohan Kumar
Centre for Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India

Abstract


The groundnut leaf miner (GLM), Aproaerema modicella Deventer (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), is a consequential pest of groundnut and other leguminous crops, which causes yield loss of up to 30–60% in groundnut in India. Nevertheless, some scientific studies have reported the occurrence of soybean moth, Aproaerema simplexella Walker attacking groundnut in India. The present study was conducted to assess the leaf miner species destroying groundnut in different regions of Tamil Nadu, India. Correctly identifying an insect species based on morphological and molecular techniques may pave the way for formulating accurate insect pest management strategies. Studies on the morphological characters of GLM confirmed that the species found in different districts of Tamil Nadu is A. modicella. However, BLAST search of GLM sequences indicated 100% similarity with A. simplexella. Since morphological characters of larva, pupa, adult, and male genitalia indicated the GLM species available in Tamil Nadu, as A. modicella, the sequences acquired from the present study have been submitted as the first entry in the NCBI database for species-level representation of A. modicella.

Keywords


Aproaerema modicella, Aproaerema simplexella, DNA barcoding, leguminous crops, morphological identification



DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv126%2Fi7%2F821-826