Lasioptera miscella Skuse, 1888

Kolesik, Peter & Gagné, Raymond J., 2016, Revision of early taxa of Australian gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), Zootaxa 4205 (4), pp. 301-338 : 320-321

Lasioptera miscella Skuse, 1888

[ Figs 2 a,11a–g]

Lasioptera miscella Skuse, 1888: 131 .

Material studied. Female (holotype, ANIC 29-38455 ), caught in flight, “ Elizabeth Bay [ NSW] (Masters). Beginning of January”. Additionally, Skuse (1890: 388) described the presumed male of this species, included here as other material ( ANIC 29-38456 ): The mounted female retains a wing, head with complete antennae, damaged thorax with two legs, and abdomen, but the terminalia are obscured inside the abdomen. The male has the wing partially folded, a damaged head with several flagellomeres, thorax with three legs, and abdomen without terminalia.

Associated gall. The holotype female was “bred from malformed, coalescent leaf-stalks of Eucalyptus haemastoma , in November” [ Fig. 2 a]. Botany (Froggatt and Skuse)”.

Remarks. The female belongs to Lasioptera based on the presence of hooked setae on the fused cerci. The cerci are, however, inserted inside the abdomen and their precise number and position cannot be determined. The male is similar to the female in the short R4+5 wing vein and robust tarsal claw. The female bears 32 flagellomeres while the male bears 23 and 24, but Lasioptera spp. show some variability in the number of flagellomeres. One of us (PK, unpubl.) reared one male adult and two pupae from red larvae causing the same kind of gall as Skuse’s male, a thickening and malformation of leaf-stalks on Eucalyptus camaldulensis , collected in Brown Hill Creek, Mitcham, South Australia [34°59’S, 138°38’E], in November 1992. We realise that the males subsequently found of this species may not be conspecific with the female holotype, but this can be determined whenever females will have been reared and compared to what little can now be appreciated of the mostly hidden ovipositor of the holotype . The following description is based on the holotype female, Skuse’s male, and the male and pupa collected by Kolesik.

Description. Female [ Figs 11 a–d]. Wing 1.7 mm long, 0.8 mm wide; R4+5 half wing length, closely adjacent to R1 and C; C broken at juncture with R4+5, R1 one-third wing length; Cu forked, reaching wing margin; R S not present, wingfold not apparent. Palpus 4-segmented; palpiger present, microtrichose; scape and pedicel ventrally with large number of evenly distributed setae, scape without setae dorsally, pedicel with only few setae at anterior edge; flagellomeres 32, wider than long, circumfila consisting of two transverse bands and two longitudinal connectives; claws toothed, bent beyond midlength, empodia as long as claws, pulvilli half length of empodia, cercus with about 60 large, hooked setae dorsally, several small, hooked setae laterally.

Male (based on Skuse’s specimen) [ Fig. 11 e]. Colour (extracted from Skuse (1890): halteres bright fulvous, abdominal intersegments reddish, segments fulvous, terminalia brown, legs with white scales. Antenna with 23 to 24 flagellomeres, body otherwise as in female. Kolesik’s male [ Fig. 11 f] with 24 flagellomeres. Terminalia: gonocoxites cylindrical beyond mediobasal lobes; gonocoxal apodemes merged basally; gonostylus narrowest at distal fourth, with comb-like tooth apically, dorsally glabrous and carinate, ventrally microtrichose at basal third, glabrous and carinate beyond; mediobasal lobe broad, subdivided, dorsal part of lobe short, hemispherical, longmicrotrichose, ventral part tapered, closely sheathing one side of aedeagus, nearly as long as aedeagus, mostly microtrichose but glabrous apically, tipped with short setae; aedeagus longer than gonocoxites, broadened apically; cerci ovoid; hypoproct slightly tapering to rounded apex, with pair of setae apically.

Pupa. Abdominal segments 2–8 dorsally with large fields of short simple spines, antennal horns large, triangular in ventral view [ Fig. 11 g].

Figures

FIGURE 2. (a) Galls of Lasioptera miscella Skuse on leaf stalks of Eucalyptus haemastoma, (b) leaf galls of Okriomyia omalanthi (Skuse) on Omalanthus populifolius, (c) stem galls of Daphnephila glandifex Kieffer on Machilus gamblei (Lauraceae) from India which Edwards (1916) stated resembled galls of Asphondylia hilli Edwards, (d) flowers galls of Dasineura dielsi Rübsaamen on Acacia cyclops, (e) galls of Cecidomyia eucalypti Skuse (unplaced Cecidomyiinae) on stems of Eucalyptus haemastoma, (f) galls of Mesodiplosis callitridis Kolesik on branch shoot tips of Callitris endlicheri from which the inquiline Gladiodiplosis frenelae (Skuse) was reared, (g) flower galls of Dasineura acaciaelongifoliae (Skuse) on Acacia longifolia, (h) leaf galls attributed to Cecidomyia parilis Skuse (nomen dubium) on Eucalyptus corymbosa, (i) leaf galls of Heteropeza transmarina Schiner (unplaced Cecidomyiinae) on Callistemon sp., (j) flower and vegetative bud galls of Dasineura frauenfeldi (Schiner) on Leptospermum laevigatum. Left: original figure from Schiner (1868); centre: galls collected with type series in 1858; right: galls collected by Kolesik at Queenscliff, Victoria, in 2008. Figures a, b, e – h from Skuse (1890); c from Kieffer (1913 b); d from Rübsaamen (1916); i, j (left) from Schiner (1868).

FIGURE 11. Lasioptera miscella Skuse. a – d: female holotype caught in flight (Skuse 1888); e: male reared from leaf stalk gall on Eucalyptus haemastoma (Skuse 1890); f – g: male and pupa reared from leaf stalk gall on E. camaldulensis (Kolesik unpublished). (a) palpus with palpiger, (b) wing (partially folded), (c) last tarsomere with claw and empodium, (d) sixth flagellomere, (e) sixth flagellomere, (f) terminalia in dorsal view with gonostylus separately in ventral view, (g) antennal horns in ventral view. Lasioptera nodosae Skuse. (h) end of ovipositor (from Kolesik 2014).