Metopomyza Enderlein, 1936

Lonsdale, Owen, 2021, Manual of North American Agromyzidae (Diptera, Schizophora), with revision of the fauna of the " Delmarva " states, ZooKeys 1051, pp. 1-481 : 1

Metopomyza Enderlein

Metopomyza Enderlein, 1936a: 180. Type species: Agromyza flavonota Haliday 1833, by monotypy. Spencer and Steyskal 1986b: 161; Zlobin 1995: 143, 2002b: 247.

Metopomyza , defined and treated in reviews by Zlobin (1995, 2002b), is a small Holarctic genus hypothesized to be an ancient offshoot of Phytoliriomyza that specialises on monocots ( Spencer 1976 a, 1990). The dense arrangement of tubercle-like setae on the epandrium and the morphology of the hypandrial complex would certainly seem to support this notion, but similarities to the Palaearctic Selachops are also numerous and require further examination. Metopomyza superficially resembles Liriomyza in having a yellow scutellum (uncommonly entirely dark) and a dark shiny scutum, but the head is darkly pigmented, at least laterally along the fronto-orbital plate, and the fronto-orbital plate is relatively pronounced and well-sclerotised, reaching (or nearly reaching) the lateral corner of the ocellar triangle to form the outline of an “M” along the posterior margin of the frons. Internally, the epandrium has two comb-like bands of tubercle-like setae. The posterior larval spiracles have minute spherical bulbs on long stalks ( Zlobin 1995).

Six species of Metopomyza are known from the Nearctic. Only M. interfrontalis (Melander) is known from the Delmarva states.