Conogethes pinicolalis has long been considered as a Pinaceae-feeding type of the yellow peach moth,
C. punctiferalis, in Korea. In this study, the divergence of
C. pinicolalis from the fruit-feeding moth
C. punctiferalis was analyzed in terms of morphology, ecology, and genetics.
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Conogethes pinicolalis has long been considered as a Pinaceae-feeding type of the yellow peach moth,
C. punctiferalis, in Korea. In this study, the divergence of
C. pinicolalis from the fruit-feeding moth
C. punctiferalis was analyzed in terms of morphology, ecology, and genetics.
C. pinicolalis differs from
C. punctiferalis in several morphological features. Through field observation, we confirmed that pine trees are the host plants for the first generation of
C. pinicolalis larvae, in contrast to fruit-feeding
C. punctiferalis larvae. We successfully reared
C. pinicolalis larvae to adults by providing them pine needles as a diet. From a genetic perspective, the sequences of mitochondrial
COI of these two species substantially diverged by an average of 5.46%; moreover, phylogenetic analysis clearly assigned each species to an independent clade. On the other hand, nuclear
EF1α showed a lower sequence divergence (2.10%) than
COI. Overall,
EF1α-based phylogenetic analysis confirmed each species as an independent clade, but a few haplotypes of
EF1α indicated incomplete lineage sorting between these two species. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that
C. pinicolalis is an independent species according to general taxonomic criteria; however, analysis of the
EF1α sequence revealed a short divergence time.
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