The Mediterranean Butterfly Phyllonorycter platani (Staudinger, 1870) in the Fomin Botanic Garden (Kiev, Ukraine)

Abstract

The mottled plane moth Phyllonorycter platani (Staudinger, 1870) was revealed in the Fomin Botanical Garden (Kyiv, Ukraine) for the first time. It is the northernmost limit (51°31′ of northern latitude) of the distribution of this species of moth in Europe and the territory of the former USSR. According to the Global Taxonomic Database of Gracillariidae (Lepidoptera), the history of phytophages distribution is documented throughout Europe, Middle East, Central Asia (Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Canary Islands, Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Croatia, France, Romania, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom) and North America. It is believed that the area of P. platani (Staudinger, 1870) origin is unknown. Colonization of plane trees by this phitophage to the north and northwest of Europe occurs at an average speed of about 10 km per year. In Ukraine the phytophage was discovered in Kherson region—the Faltz-Fein Biosphere Reserve Askania-Nova in 1998, and in 2012—in Tsyurupinsk, a city located 600 km far from Kiev. In the area of the Botanical Garden, the mottled moth feeds on Platanus × acefolia (Ait.) Willd. and Platanus orientalis L. The density of leaf colonization by phytophages on P. × acerifolia increases—from 3.7 pcs/leaf (2010) to 18.4 pcs/leaf (2016). Under favorable conditions, two generations of moth may appear during the season.