e D : - the journal of a Ch eck Lis t ae eS data a) NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTIO First record of the pistachio psyllid Agonoscena cisti (Puton, 1882) (Hemiptera, Psylloidea) in the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean) Monika Pramatarova'’, David Mifsud’, Ilia Gjonov' 1 Department of Zoology and Anthropology, Faculty of Biology, Sofia University, Dragan Tzankov 8, 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria 2 National Museum of Natural History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria 3 Institute of Earth Systems, Division of Rural Sciences and Food Systems, University of Malta, Msida, Malta Corresponding author: //ia Gjonov (gjonov@cicadina.com) Abstract. Agonoscena cisti (Puton, 1882) (Psylloidea, Aphalaridae) is reported for the first time from the Maltese Islands. The species is oligophagous on pistachio plants (Pistacia L.) and is restricted to the Medi- terranean area. Until now, only Agonoscena targionii (Lichtenstein, 1874) had been known from the Maltese archipelago, although the presence of A. cist/ was predicted. Key words. Jumping plant louse, Maltese archipelago, new record, Pistacia spp. Pramatarova M, Mifsud D, Gjonov I (2024) First record of the pistachio psyllid Agonoscena cisti (Puton, 1882) (Hemiptera, Psylloidea) in the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean). Check List 20 (4): 991-995. https://doi.org/10.15560/20.4.991 INTRODUCTION Jumping plant lice or psyllids (Hemiptera, Psylloidea) are small, narrowly host-specific insects that feed on plant phloem. Because of the damage some species inflict by their feeding, some species are considered agricultural pests as they are vectors of bacterial and phytoplasma plant diseases that cause considerable economic losses (Burckhardt 1994; Moreno et al. 2021). The superfamily comprises some 4,000 described species worldwide, although there are at least as many undescribed species (Burckhardt et al. 2021). In Europe, Psylloidea is represented by six of the seven currently recognized psyllid families (Aphalaridae, Car- sidaridae, Calophyidae, Liviidae, Psyllidae, and Triozidae) with approximately 400 species (Ouvrard 2024). In Maltese Islands, 21 have been reported so far (Mifsud 2020) including a single Agonoscena species. The genus Agonoscena Enderlein, 1914 (Aphalaridae, Rhinocolinae) currently comprises 16 extant species distributed in the Palaearctic and Afrotropical regions (Burckhardt and Lauterer 1989; Li 2011; Male- novsky et al. 2012; Bastin et al. 2023). Of these, six species feed on Pistacia spp., while those that feed on Pistacia vera L. can cause significant damage in the main agricultural regions where it is cultivated, such as lran (Mehrnejad 2020). Moreover, Agonoscena pistaciae Burckhardt & Lauterer, 1989 was recently reported from Spain, which was the first record of this species outside its native range (south-eastern Europe) (Rodrigo-Gémez and Burckhardt 2023). Although the taxonomy of Western Palaearctic Agonoscena is well studied (Burckhardt and Lauterer 1989), their small size and morphological similarity, as well as seasonal dimorphism, makes species identification somewhat difficult for non-specialists (Mehrnejad and Copland OPEN Qaccess 2005; Lashkari et al. 2019). So far, A. targionii (Lichtenstein, 1874) has been the only pistachio feeding psyllid known from the Maltese Islands. The aim of the present work is to provide additional data on Agonoscena species and their Academic editor: Shalva Barjadze distribution in the Maltese archipelago. Received: 16 May 2024 Accepted: 18 July 2024 Published: 15 August 2024 METHODS Jumping plant-lice were collected by sweeping on Pistacia /entiscus L. (Anacardiaceae) (Figures 1, 2). Copyright © The authors. This is an open-access ~——_A\|| specimens are deposited in the Zoological Collection of the Sofia University (BFUS), Bulgaria. Several article distributed under terms of the Creative : ° Raw : . specimens were slide-mounted, whereas the majority were dry-mounted. Databasing of the specimens Commons Attribution License (Attribution 4.0 ; f ; ; International — CC BY 4.0) was performed using the Specify collection management platform (https:/Awww.specifysoftware.org/), 991 Pramatarova etal. - First record of Agonoscena cisti in Malta 992 35.900°N 8 | a te wo oO rf | B Figure 1. Distribution of Agonoscena cisti. A. General distribution, green — present, yellow — doubtful records or missing country data, grey — not present. Saint Elena Island is not shown on the map due to its remote location. B. Distribution in the Maltese Islands, red dot — localities where species was found in the present study. Figure 2. Habitat of Agonoscena cisti in Bingemma. where all metadata were uploaded in the database of BFUS, receiving an unique identifier and machine readable QR-code. Specimens were photographed using a Canon 70D DSLR camera with a Canon MP-E 65 mm macro lens and a Yongnuo YN-24EX macro flash. The distribution map (Fig. 1) was created using QGIS v. 3.6.0 (http://www.qgis.org) and Database of Global Administrative Areas (GADM) shapefile (http://www. gadm.org). RESULTS Aphalaridae Low, 1879 Rhinocolinae Vondracek, 1957 Agonoscena Enderlein, 1914 Agonoscena cisti (Puton, 1882) Figure 3A, B New records (material examined). MALTA — MALTA ISLAND « Ghadira Nat Park; 35.969°N, 014.349°E: 10 ma.s.l.; 08.VI.2019; Ilia Gjonov leg.; 1G43/19; 6 4, BFUS-I-1G028208 — BFUS-I-IG028213, 7 2, BFUS- |-IG028214—BFUS-I-IGO28220 « Buskett Gardens; 35.856°N, 014.398°E; 200 m a.s.l.; 17.1V.2024, Ilia Gjonov Check List 20 (4) - https://doi.org/10.15560/20.4.991 Pramatarova etal. - First record of Agonoscena cisti in Malta 993 Figure 3. Adults of Maltese Agonoscena spp. A. A. cisti, lateral view. B. A. cist, dorsal view. C. A. targionii, lateral view. D. A. targionii, dorsal view. Scale bar: 1 mm. leg.; 1615/24; 23 4, BFUS-I-1G028221-BFUS-I-1G028243, 8 2, BFUS-I-1G028244 — BFUS-I-IG028251 - Bingemma; 35.912°N, 014.380°E; 90 ma.s.l. (Figure 2); 18.1V.2024; Ilia Gjonov leg.; 1G16/24; 2 2, BFUS- |-IGO28252-—BFUS-I-IGO28253 -« |I-Bafirija; 35.896°N, 014.349°E, 210 m a.s.l.; 18.1V.2024; llia Gjonov leg.; 1G18/24; 13 3’, BFUS-I-1G028254 — BFUS-I-1G028266, 23 9, BFUS-I-IG028267—BFUS-I-IG028289 « Salina; 35.930°N, 014.410°E; 50 m a.s.l.; 19.1V.2024; Ilia Gjonov leg.; |G20/24; 6 3’, BFUS-I-l1G028290 — BFUS- |-IGO28295, 59, BFUS-I-lG028296-BFUS-I-IG028300 + Wardija; 35.946°N, 014.379°E, 0 ma.s.l., 19.1V.2024; llia Gjonov leg.; 1G21/24; 2 9, BFUS-I-1G028301-BFUS-I-IG028302 — GOZO ISLAND « Hondog Bay; 36.028°N, 014.322°E; 10 ma.s.l.; 20.1V.2024; llia Gjonov leg.; 1|G22/24; 3 4, BFUS-I-IG028303-BFUS-I-1G028305, 6 9, BFUS-I-|G028306-—BFUS-I-IG028311. Identification. Adults of Agonoscena cisti (Figure 3A, B) can be reliably distinguished from A. targionii (Lichtenstein, 1874) (Figure 3C, D) (already known from Malta) based on morphological characteristics outlined by Burckhardt and Lauterer (1989) and Rodrigo-Gomez and Burckhardt (2023): a predominantly dark-brown, almost black body with pale yellow legs, bearing dark-brown femoral spot; a concave C+Sc vein; forewings with a distinctive broad band pattern along the outer margin; raised tubercular meracathus on the metacoxae; very small posterior process of parameres, situated subapically; female proctiger forming an apical process, as it is dorsally concave. Additionally, specimens of A. cisti were compared with specimens of A. pistaciae deposited in BFUS. DISCUSSION Agonoscena cisti develops on Pistacia lentiscus L. (Hodkinson and Hollis 1981; Burckhardt 1989; the former is confirmed by the presence of immatures) and P. pa/aestina Boiss. (Halperin et al. 1982; Burckhardt 1989). The species was described from France by Puton (1882) and has since been reported within the Palaearctic Region, mostly restricted to the Mediterranean Basin. In the past, A. c/sti has often been misidentified. Therefore, we consider only the records after Hodkinson and Hollis (1981) defined the species to be reli- able: Algeria (Burckhardt 1989), the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands (Spain) (Hodkinson and Hollis 1981), Greece (Burckhardt 1987), Italy (Burckhardt and Lauterer 1989), Israel (Halperin et al. 1982), Portugal (Burck- hardt and Lauterer 1989), Saint Helena (Great Britain) (Burckhardt and Lauterer 1989), Tunisia (Burckhardt and Lauterer 1989), Turkey (Lodos and Onucar 1985), and the former Yugoslavia (Burckhardt and Lauterer 1989). Although A. targionii has been the only species from genus Agonoscena recorded from the Maltese Check List 20 (4) - https://doi.org/10.15560/20.4.991 Pramatarova etal. - First record of Agonoscena cisti in Malta 994 Islands (Mifsud 2020), A. cisti was included in the dichotomous key by Mifsud (1997) as a species that could potentially occur in Malta. The presence of A. cisti in Malta is not surprising considering that both A. cisti and A. targionii have a similar Mediterranean distribution, so we consider A. cist/ to be native to the Maltese Islands. We found both A. cisti and A. targionii in mixed populations across all surveyed localities in Malta, some of them visited by Mifsud in 1994 (Mifsud 1997, 2020); however, it is very likely that no specimens of A. cisti have been collected in the past as the species is less abundant than the related A. targionii. The new discovery of A. cisti for the Maltese entomofauna is noteworthy as it further increases the knowledge of the distribution range of the species. Furthermore, considering that four (Acizzia uncatoides (Ferris & Klyver, 1932, Blastopsylla occidentalis Taylor, 1985, Glycaspis brimblecombei Moore, 1964, and Macrohomotoma gladiata Kuwayama, 1908) of the 21 species reported by Mifsud (2020) are introduced taxa, this finding is even more valuable and highlights the need for further studies to better understand the biodiversity of the Maltese archipelago and its conservation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to the reviewers for their constructive feedback and valuable suggestions, which greatly improved the paper. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Conflict of interest The authors declare that no competing interests exist. Ethical statement No ethical statement is reported. Funding This study was financially supported by Scientific Research Fund of SU “St. Kliment Ohridski”, grant number 80-10-5/2024. Author contributions Conceptualization: MP, DM, IG. Data curation: MP, DM, IG. Formal analysis: MP, DM, IG. Investigation: DM, IG. Methodology: IG. Resources: DM, IG. Supervision: DM, IG. Visualization: MP, IG. Writing — original draft: MP, DM, IG. Author ORCID iDs Monika Pramatarova © https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8012-6249 David Mifsud © https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9562-1077 llia Gjonov © https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4239-9756 Data availability All data that support the findings of this study are available in the main text. REFERENCES Bastin S, Burckhardt D, Reyes-Betancort JA, Hernandez-Suarez E, Ouvrard D (2023) A review of the jumping plant- lice (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) of the Canary Islands, with descriptions of two new genera and sixteen new species. 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