Third instar larvae of the genus Acroceratitis Hendel from North Thailand are described for the first time. They belong to A. ceratitina (Bezzi), A. distincta (Zia), A. histrionica (de Meijere), A. incompleta Hardy, and A. septemmaculata Hardy. Short descriptions of eggs, empty egg shells, and puparia are also presented. Acroceratitis larvae infest shoots of bamboo (Poaceae). Larval host plants of the studied species are Bambusa polymorpha Munro, Cephalostachyum pergracile Munro, Dendrocalamus hamiltoni Nees and Arnott ex Munro, D. strictus (Roxbourgh), Dendrocalamus sp. (unidentified) and Pseudoxytenanthera albociliata (Munro). The morphological characters of Acroceratitis larvae are compared with those of other Gastrozonini described so far. A key to Acroceratitis larvae is provided. Acroceratitis ceratitina, A. incompleta and A. septemmaculata are morphologically similar and clearly differentiated from A. distincta and A. histrionica by the lack of additional papillar sensilla on the labial lobe, the arrangement of the spinules on the creeping welts and other characters. The morphological differences between the two groups coincide with the type of substrate utilized by their larvae: A. ceratitina, A. incompleta and A. septemmaculata larvae feed in young and soft internode walls, while A. distincta and A. histrionica utilize harder bamboo tissue of already elongated bamboo shoot internodes. Acroceratitis histrionica larvae are special within the Gastrozonini, because they develop exclusively in cavities formed by the internode surface and the protecting culm sheath. Factors influencing spatial utilization of larval resources, preference for upright shoots as breeding substrate, larval behavior, types of bamboo damage caused by different species and attraction to sweat and urine in the adults are discussed., Alexander Schneider, Damir Kovac, Gary J. Steck, Amnon Freidberg., and Obsahuje bibliografii
This paper describes previously unreported lateral cuticle splits occurring during the moulting of larvae of the leaf-miners Pachyschelus laevigatus (Say, 1839) (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) and Cameraria sp. (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae). In these species the cuticle does not split dorsally during the larval/larval moults as in most insects, but laterally, thus permitting the larva to leave its exuviae sideways rather than vertically. This previously overlooked phenomenon is hypothesized to have evolved independently in both taxa and is an adaptation to life in the vertically limited space of their mines and, therefore, might be found in other organisms confined to similar conditions. The exuvial split in the larva to pupa moult of Cameraria sp. taking place inside a relatively tick and firm cocoon is, however, of the regular dorso-medial type, and, therefore, two different successive types of moult occur within a single ontogenesis. For comparative purposes the common dorsal exuvial split is described and illustrated for the leaf-mining larvae of Profenusa alumna (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae), Sumitrosis rosea (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and the free-living Satonius fui (Coleoptera: Torridincolidae)., Vasily V. Grebennikov., and Obsahuje seznam literatury