Winnertzia pravdini Mamaeva & Mamaev

Jaschhof, Mathias & Jaschhof, Catrin, 2020, Reevaluation of species richness in Winnertzia (Diptera, Cecidomyiidae, Winnertziinae), with descriptions of 37 new species from Sweden, Peru and Australia, Zootaxa 4829 (1), pp. 1-72 : 57

Winnertzia pravdini Mamaeva & Mamaev

This species was originally described from the Russian part of the Caucasus Mountains, where larvae were found living in decaying bulbs of autumn crocus Colchicum speciosum Steven ( Mamaeva & Mamaev 1971) . It was subsequently reported from Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, and South Korea ( Spungis 1992; Jaschhof & Jaschhof 2013; Ham et al. 2020). For the present revision we studied 17 males from Sweden (as opposed to only three in 2013), which we initially assumed were W. pravdini but on closer examination turned out to represent two distinct morphotypes. The distinctions discovered are numerous and clear, and concern non-genitalic as well as genitalic structures, which we take as evidence that they denote two discrete species. As indicated by the collection data, both species differ also in their habitat preference and adult phenology (information on larvae is unavailable). Much to our surprise we found that neither of our species is identical with W. pravdini , on the presumption that the morphological information communicated in the original description ( Mamaeva & Mamaev 1971) is correct. On that assumption, W. pravdini is distinguished by the following combination of male characters: the necks of the flagellomeres are markedly longer than the nodes; the third and fourth palpal segments are equally long; the empodia have a large tooth basally; the gonostylus is broadest on the distal half and then strongly tapered towards the apex; and the posterior edge of the ninth tergite is only slightly concave medially ( Mamaeva & Mamaev 1971: fig. 2). While our results leave W. pravdini without a valid record in Sweden, the two new species close to it are described below as W. pratensis and W. silvestris . In view of future studies into the taxonomy of Winnertzia , it should be mentioned here that we know of another pravdini -like species that occurs in the cloud forest of Costa Rica (unpublished data).