A new species of genus Pseudaspidapion Wanat, 1990 (Coleoptera, Apionidae) from China

Pseudaspidapion botanicum sp. n. from China is described and figured. Its host plant is Grewia biloba G.Don var. parviflora (Bunge) Hand.-Mazz (Malvaceae: Grewioideae). The genus Harpapion Voss, 1966 is recorded as new for China and Vietnam and two comb. n. are proposed: Harpapion vietnamense (Korotyaev, 1985) (from Aspidapion) and H. coelebs (Korotyaev, 1987) (from Pseudaspidapion). A key to the known species of the genus Pseudaspidapion from China is presented.We thank Marek Wanat for kindly providing us references and many good advices, Boris A. Korotyaev for lending paratypes, Steven R. Davis for doing the linguistic review before submission, Yang Ganyan for collecting specimens, Zhou Dakang for providing information about the host plants, Yin Ziwei and Nico M. Franz for providing the brush-pencil Plug-ins of Adobe Illustrator. We also thank two anonymous reviewers whose suggestions considerably improved our work. This research has been supported by an Invited Professor Award (2009) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to the senior author and by project grant CGL2010–15786 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain).Peer Reviewe

Evemphyron sinense, a new genus and species infesting legume seedpods in China (Coleoptera, Attelabidae, Rhynchitinae)

A new genus Evemphyron Alonso-Zarazaga, Lv & Wang, gen. n., belonging to Attelabidae Rhynchitinae, is described. Its single species, Evemphyron sinense Alonso-Zarazaga, Lv & Wang, sp. n., was reared from larvae found inside seed pods of the legume Callerya dielsiana (Fabaceae, Millettieae) in Sichuan Province (China). The species is figured and placed in the Deporaini because of the presence of minute labial palpi, the strongly crescentic apex of the postmentum, and the apodemes of male IX sternite and female VIII sternite curved sinistro-anterially near their cephalic end. It shows 3-segmented labial palpi and male sex patches on the procoxae, characters that suggest a basal position in the tribe.Peer Reviewe

Isolation and analysis of a very virulent Marek’s disease virus strain in China

BACKGROUND: A severe MD was broken out at a farm in Shandong, China, despite FC126 vaccination of the chickens at 1-day-old. The mortality of the flocks reached up to 38.3%. The infected chickens were found to have MD pathological changes, including enlargement of spleens, livers and kidneys, and tumors occured on organs later. Samples were collected from the chickens for diagnosis. METHODS: The collected samples were inoculated into primary duck embryo fibroblast (DEF) cells, and the MDV strain named SD2012-1 was isolated. In order to identify the isolate, amplification by PCR and sequencing of oncogenic Meq and vIL-8 gene were processed, the obtained sequences were compared with the sequences of reference strains, and SD2012-1 was used to challenge immunized SPF chickens. RESULTS: A very virulent MDV isolate strain, SD2012-1, was isolated from a chicken flock in Shandong Province, China, the isolate had the characteristics of very virulent MDV-1, nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence comparisons of Meq and vIL-8 gene of SD2012-1 with those of reference strains showed SD2012-1 had high homology with MDV strains isolated from China, SD2012-1 could break through the protection provided by HVT vaccine and HVT + SB-1 vaccine immunization and caused the mortality of SPF chickens over 60%. The immune failure occured at the farm could be due to the improper selection of vaccines. SD2012-1 produced death later and the gross postmortem lesions of chickens died early and later were different. CONCLUSIONS: MDV strain SD2012-1 isolated from Shandong Province, China was found to have the characteristics of very virulent MDV-1, which could break through the protection provided by HVT vaccine and HVT + SB-1 vaccine, the virus seemed to have a long latent period, and cause different gross postmortem lesions of chickens between chickens died early and later. A better immunization way should be chosen to prevent infection of this MDV strain in field