Morphological re-description of Kurisakia querciphila Takahashi, 1960 (Hemiptera, Aphididae, Thelaxinae) from South Korea, with notes on its Korean record.

BACKGROUND: The genus Kurisakia Takahashi, 1924 belongs to the subfamily Thelaxinae (Hemiptera, Aphididae) and currently comprises seven valid species worldwide. Kurisakia querciphila Takahashi, 1960 was originally described from Japan as a subspecies of K. onigurumii and was subsequently recognised as a distinct species. In Korea, Paik recorded K. onigurumii, a record that was later referred to K. querciphila. Nevertheless, the current National Species List of Korea lists only K. onigurumii within the genus Kurisakia, whereas K. querciphila is not included.

NEW INFORMATION: We provide a detailed morphological re-description and illustrations of the apterous viviparous female of Kurisakia querciphila, based on recently collected specimens from South Korea. The specimens were collected from Quercus variabilis in Jinju-si, Gyeongsangnam-do, in 2024. Host-plant and distributional information is also provided and the COI sequence obtained from a single individual was deposited in GenBank. The present study confirms the occurrence of K. querciphila in South Korea, based on morphologically identified specimens and provides taxonomic evidence supporting its inclusion in the National Species List of Korea.