Asphondylia vitea Felt, 1918

Kolesik, Peter & Gagné, Raymond J., 2020, A review of the gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) of Indonesia: taxonomy, biology and adult key to genera, Zootaxa 4847 (1), pp. 1-82 : 18-19

Asphondylia vitea Felt

[ Figs 8 a–i]

Asphondylia vitea Felt, 1918: 284 .

Material examined. Lectotype of Asphondylia vitea Felt here designated, male, reared from stem galls on Cissus trifolia (L.) K. Sch. [now Cayratia trifolia (L.) Domin ( Vitaceae )], Manila, the Philippines, 1907, Bureau of Science accession No. 6650, W. Schultze, Felt #a2839; paralectotypes, one male, one female, same data as lectotype except Felt #a2840. All the specimens are whole-mounted, uncleared, with all characters preserved. Felt (1918) originally noted also that collections were made in 1905 by C.S. Banks and in 1910 by E.D. Merrill, but we have seen no specimens corresponding to those collection dates.

Description. Male. Wing [ Fig. 8h ] 2.5 mm long, 0.9 mm wide. Flagellomeres cylindrical with short necks, progressively longer, 6 th segment 3.5x longer than wide, 12 th 5x longer than wide; circumfila comprising four wavy longitudinal bands, (likely) connected by loops at anterior and posterior end [ Fig. 8g ]. Palpus 3-segmented, second segment 3x longer than first, third 1.5x longer than second [ Fig. 8d ]. Apicoventral tarsal spur robust, curved slightly upwards [ Fig. 8e ]. Tarsal claws strong, curved at distal third [ Fig. 8i ], those of the foreleg similarly shaped but not so robust as those of the mid and hindleg. Terminalia [ Fig. 8f ]: gonocoxite robust, gonocoxal apodemes long, separated distally; gonostylus twice as long as wide in posterior view, with merged, equally large distal teeth; cerci ovoid; lobes of hypoproct triangular, divided by shallow, narrow incision; aedeagus long, narrow, rounded distally.

Female. Ovipositor with moderately large dorsal pair of pseudocerci basally; needle-like protrusible part of ovipositor short, 1.6x as long as seventh sternite.

Pupa, larva unknown.

Remarks. Felt (1918) stated that no gall description was associated with the type material of this species from Manila, but Uichano (1919, Figs 4 & 6 in Tab. VIII [ Figs 8a, b ]) described and photographed the gall of this species collected at Laguna, Luzon between viii and ix-1917. DvLR & DvL (1926, No 891, Fig. 636 [ Fig. 8c ]) reported and illustrated a petiole and stem gall from Cayratia trifolia in Java which they deemed “probably identical” to the gall described by Uichano (1919) and attributed to Asphondylia vitea Felt. Despite there being no insects available from this Javanese collection, we are including A. vitea in the Indonesian fauna because the same kind of gall occurs on the same host there. In Indonesia, Asphondylia viticola also occurs on the same host, but its galls are lopsided [see Fig. 4c ], unlike those of A. vitea that are symmetrically developed around petioles and stems [ Figs 8 a–c].

Biology. DvLR & DvL (1926, No 891, Fig. 636 [ Fig. 8c ]) describe the gall on Cayratia trifolia as oval or almost cylindrical outgrowths of the stem which is distended in all directions. All the tissues of the stem take part in the gall-formation. The surface is green, glabrous or pubescent, the wall succulent. The galls are 10–50 mm long and about 7 mm across, with larger specimens containing more larval chambers than smaller ones.

Geographical distribution. This species is known from the Philippines and Indonesia. In Indonesia it was found at Jrakah, near Semarang, Java, ii-1012 (DvLR & DvL 1926).

Figures

FIGURE 4a. Asphondylia capsicicola: a, gall on Capsicum sp. in South East Asia (Fig. 1 of Uechi et al. (2016). Figs 4b–c. Asphondylia viticola: b, young gall on Causonis trifolia (Fig. 48 of DvLR 1909b); c, mature gall on C. trifolia (Fig. 637 of DvLR & DvL (1926)). Figs 4d–e. Asphondylia yushimai (photos by Atsushi Kikuchi, Hiroshima, Japan, October 2007): d, pupal exuviae in infested pod of Glycine max; e, damage of pod of G. max.

FIGURES 6a–m. Asphondylia leeae: a, gall on Leea indica, two normal fruit on left, gall on right (Fig. 203 of DvLR & DvL 1914); b–f, male: b, first tarsal segment; c, last tarsal segment with claw and empodium; d, palpus; e, first three flagellomeres; f, gonostylus (posterior); g–i, female: g, posterior end of abdomen (ventral); h, end of needle-like protrusible part of ovipositor (ventral); i, antenna, 6th flagellomere shriveled; j–m, pupa: j, head (ventral); k, head (ventrolateral); l, last abdominal segments (ventrolateral); m, prothoracic spiracle. Fig. 6n. Asphondylia litseae: n, pupal antennal horns (dorsal, Fig. 5 of Felt 1921b).

FIGURES 8a–i. Asphondylia vitea: a–b, galls on Cayratia trifolia from the Philippines (Figs VIII-4 & VIII-6 of Uichanco (1919)); c, gall on C. trifolia from Indonesia (Fig. 636 of DvLR & DvL (1926)); d, palpus; e, first tarsomere; f, male terminalia (dorsoposterior); g, 6th male flagellomere (only part of circumfila visible in type specimen); h, wing; i, tarsal claw of front leg with empodium. Insect drawings made from types reared in the Philippines.