Nota lepid. 27 (1): 33^0 33 Blastodacna libanotica Diakonoff, 1939 - a pest on pear in Turkey (Agonoxenidae) Sjaak (J.C.) Koster 1 , Hikmet Özbek 2 , Irfan Aslan 2 & Twan (A.L.M.) Rutten 3 1 National museum of Natural History Naturalis, PO Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands; e-mail: Sj aak . Ko ster@wx s . ni 2 Atatürk University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Plant Protection, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey; e-mail: hozbek@atauni.edu.tr 3 Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Corrensstrasse 3, 06466 Gatersleben, Germany; e-mail: rutten@ipk-gatersleben.de Abstract. Blastodacna libanotica Diakonoff, 1939 (Agonoxenidae) is recorded for the first time to dam- age pear trees (Pyrus sp.) during the larval stage. The observation has been made in Oltu, district of Erzurum province (Turkey). The larvae make galls in the young shoots. Small trees do not survive heavy infestation with this pest. The biology is discussed and the external characters of the moth and the male and female genitalia, as well as the immature stages, are illustrated. Key words. Blastodacna, Agonoxenidae, life history, taxonomy, pest species, Pyrus, Turkey, Palaearctic. Introduction Moths (Lepidoptera) can have an enormous impact on agriculture, forestry and stored products. Many species can cause severe damage to fruit and crops. For example, in the family Tineidae, the larvae of the clothes moths Trichophaga tapetzella (Linnaeus, 1758) and Tineola bisselliella (Hummel, 1823) are well known to feed indoors on manufactured goods of animal origin such as wool and hair. In the family Oecophoridae the larvae of Hofmannophila pseudospretella (Stainton, 1849) and Endrosis sarcitrella (Linnaeus, 1758) feed on dead animal and vegetable matter, and can be harmful to stored products and museum collections. In the Pyralidae the species of Ephestia Guenée, 1845 and Cadra Walker, 1864 are notorious for the damage to stored products; and several other species of the subfamily Phycitinae can be harmful to fruit and coniferous trees (Baker 1983). However, the largest group of species that can influence our way of life belong to the Tortricidae. More than 400 species of this family attack crops and fruit or cause severe damage to deciduous and coniferous trees (van der Geest & Evenhuis 1991). In the rather small family Agonoxenidae, Haplochrois theae (Kusnetsov, 1915) is a serious pest of the tea plant. The genus Blastodacna Wocke, 1876 belongs to the same family, and Blastodacna atra (Haworth, 1828) has been reported as a pest on apple {Malus sp.) (Miles 1930; Balachowsky 1934). The larvae of Blastodacna, from the few species of which the immature stages have been described, live in twigs or fruits of woody Rosaceae. Pupation takes place in a cocoon in the feeding place or in crevices of the bark of the food plant. The genus has a Holarctic distribution, but most species have been described from the Palaearctic region. Here we report for the first time damage caused by a second species of that genus, B. libanotica Diakonoff, 1939 on pear and wild pear. © Nota lepidopterologica, 28.06.2004, ISSN 0342-7536 ©Societas Europaea Lepidopterologica; download unter http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ und www.zobodat.at