Phyllotreta undefined-2

Phyllotreta sp. 2 (Figs. 102, 106, 165) Reared specimen. NORTH CAROLINA: Scotland Co., Laurinburg, St. Andrews University, 26.iv.2016, em. 23.v.2016, T. S. Feldman, ex Lepidium virginicum, # CSE2490 (1♀, MLBM). Host. Brassicaceae: Lepidium virginicum L. Biology. As with Phyllotreta sp. 1, the larva was seemingly identical with that of P. chalybeipennis (Fig. 106). It formed a full-depth, linear mine, tending to follow the lateral veins, with frass deposited in a mostly liquid central line, interspersed with irregular, more solid particles (Fig. 102). Parasitoids. An adult of Neochrysocharis arizonensis (Crawford) (Eulophidae) (CSE2477, BMNH) emerged on 21 May from an aborted mine in the same leaf from which the adult beetle was reared. Two eulophids have been reported from Nearctic Phyllotreta spp. previously: N. formosus (Westwood) from P. aeneicollis (Hansson 1995), and Pediobius phyllotretae (Riley) from P. zimmermanni (Riley 1884). Notes. Identification of Phyllotreta females is extremely difficult because most diagnostic features deal with either the male antennae or the aedeagus (S.M. Clark, in litt.). The situation is made worse by the fact that this female belongs to one of the entirely black species (see Phyllotreta sp. 1).