The Hymenopterous Parasitoids of the Lime Leaf Miner Phyllonorycter issikii (Kumata) (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) from Its Native and Invaded Regions in Asian Russia†
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The article is well written, methodology adequate and results are very descriptive. Specimens subjected to analysis originated from distinct and distant localities. Diversity of parasitoids of invasive leaf miner which was confirmed both, morphologically and molecularly represents valuable platform for future targeting of potential biocontrol agents.
Author Response
Dear Mr/Mrs,
we thank you for careful reading and evaluation. We are glad that no any issues or questions appeared during reading the manuscript.
Best regards,
Natalia Kirichenko (on behalf of all coauthors)
Reviewer 2 Report
My expertise is more in Lepidoptera than Hymenoptera, so I'm not an expert on the morphological terminology used in the descriptions. But the species descriptions and diagnoses appear to be thorough and well-researched, and the surveying of parasitoids of this moth species appears extensive.
I recommend accepting after minor revisions. Miscellaneous comments on spelling/grammar issues are presented below:
23 - I thought it was spelled Novosibirsk, and I thought it was an oblast, not a province. If so, needs to be fixed throughout the text
36 - "Tilia spp." should be in parentheses w/ Malvaceae
40 - "a leaf-mining pest"
46 - "Prior to our study"
58 - "parasitoids of Ph. issikii"
130 - Says 14 species were barcoded, but on line 179 it says only 12 species were IDed with barcoding. Does that means two of the 14 species based on morphology were misidentified?
162 - "Different"
266-268 - there should be a period, colon, or other punctuation ark after the letters for each image in the figure caption. Hard to tell where each subcaption begins. Fix for other captions as needed.
298 - "costal"
305 - delete "its"
311 - "according to Boucek"
367 - Leucopteridae is no longer a valid family name, this should probably be Lyonetiidae
414 - stigmellidae is no longer a valid family name, this should probably be Nepticulidae
534-536 - This heading should be placed after Figure 8 so that it is next to the rest of the description
584 - sentence should start with the full genus name instead of the abbreviation
589 - "However, the new species"
736 - Lymantriidae is now a subfamily of Erebidae
759 - "specimens correspond"
775 - ectoparasites, plural
806 - "morphologically appear to be"
820 - "in almost all"
822 - Bucculatricidae misspelled
925 - "matte" is misspelled
1004 - "record in North Korea"
1024 - "usually of mining..."
1037 - change 'carried' to 'conducted'
1045 - avoid misspelled
1054 - furthermore misspelled
Author Response
Dear Mr/Mrs,
thank you for valuable comments. We have carefully addressed all of them in the manuscript and provided our answers point-by-point below.
We hope that you will find the improved version of the manuscript satisfactory.
Thanks!
Best regards,
Natalia Kirichenko (on behalf of all coauthors)
REPLIES TO THE COMMENTS OF THE REVIEWER
23 - I thought it was spelled Novosibirsk, and I thought it was an oblast, not a province. If so, needs to be fixed throughout the text
AUTHORS: right, Novosibirsk is an oblast (in transliteration from Russian), which, by its meaning, is equal to the English term “province”. In our ms, we preferred to use the terms easily recognizable by the international community.
36 - "Tilia spp." should be in parentheses / Malvaceae
AUTHORS: corrected.
40 - "a leaf-mining pest"
AUTHORS: corrected.
46 - "Prior to our study"
AUTHORS: corrected.
58 - "parasitoids of Ph. issikii"
AUTHORS: corrected.
130 - Says 14 species were barcoded, but on line 179 it says only 12 species were IDed with barcoding. Does that means two of the 14 species based on morphology were misidentified?
AUTHORS: thanks for spotting; we corrected to 14 in the second case.
162 - "Different"
AUTHORS: corrected.
266-268 - there should be a period, colon, or other punctuation ark after the letters for each image in the figure caption. Hard to tell where each subcaption begins. Fix for other captions as needed.
AUTHORS: we have reorganized the figure captions (Figures 2, 4-14) according to suggestions.
298 - "costal"
AUTHORS: corrected.
305 - delete "its"
AUTHORS: corrected.
311 - "according to Boucek"
AUTHORS: corrected.
367 - Leucopteridae is no longer a valid family name, this should probably be Lyonetiidae
AUTHORS: corrected.
414 - stigmellidae is no longer a valid family name, this should probably be Nepticulidae
AUTHORS: corrected.
534-536 - This heading should be placed after Figure 8 so that it is next to the rest of the description
AUTHORS: corrected.
584 - sentence should start with the full genus name instead of the abbreviation
AUTHORS: corrected.
589 - "However, the new species"
AUTHORS: corrected.
736 - Lymantriidae is now a subfamily of Erebidae
AUTHORS: the family name is now corrected.
759 - "specimens correspond"
AUTHORS: corrected.
775 - ectoparasites, plural
AUTHORS: it refers to one species, thus we keep it as singular.
806 - "morphologically appear to be"
AUTHORS: corrected.
820 - "in almost all"
AUTHORS: corrected.
822 - Bucculatricidae misspelled
AUTHORS: corrected.
925 - "matte" is misspelled
AUTHORS: corrected.
1004 - "record in North Korea"
AUTHORS: corrected.
1024 - "usually of mining..."
AUTHORS: corrected to “of leaf mining…”
1037 - change 'carried' to 'conducted'
AUTHORS: corrected.
1045 - avoid misspelled
AUTHORS: corrected.
1054 - furthermore misspelled
AUTHORS: corrected.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
