Melanagromyza memoranda Spencer

Boucher, Stéphanie & Wheeler, Terry A., 2014, Neotropical Agromyzidae (Diptera) of the Mission Géodésique de l’Équateur: Becker (1920) revisited, Zootaxa 3779 (2), pp. 157-176 : 160

Melanagromyza memoranda Spencer

( Figs. 7–9 )

Melanagromyza memoranda Spencer 1973a: 18 .

Agromyza aeneiventris Fallén , of Becker (1920), in part.

MNHN specimen. Ecuador: Cuenca, G. Rivet 1905 (1 ♂).

Comments. This species was previously known only from Venezuela ( Spencer 1973a; Martinez & Etienne 2002). Externally, the Ecuadorian male specimen mostly agrees with the original description of M. memoranda except as follows: eye dorsally hairy; antenna not especially large; wing length 2.9 mm (compared to 2.4 mm in Spencer 1973a); last section of CuA1 about 0.50 length of penultimate. Other notable characters not in the original description are the narrow sub-shining orbit, each of which is about 0.15 times the width of the frons (including orbits) and the long orbital setulae in two rows, with the outer row reclinate and the inner row mostly erect. The phallus of the Ecuadorian specimen ( Figs. 7–8 ) matches the original illustrations of M. memoranda ( Spencer 1973a) , with the U-shaped basiphallus more clearly visible in a freshly dissected specimen ( Fig. 8 , inset) (possibly due to chemical treatment). This species also has a characteristic extended hypandrial apodeme ( Fig. 9 ). The epandrium has multiple small spines internally with 5–6 longer ones, and one small spine at the hind corner (arrow, Fig. 9 ). The Brazilian species M. falciformis Braun and Prado (Braun et al. 2009) has somewhat similar genitalia but that species is much smaller, with a wing length not exceeding 1.28 mm in the male.

Figures

FIGURES 7 – 9. Melanagromyza memoranda Spencer, (7) phallus, lateral, (8) phallus, ventral, (9) hypandrium and epandrium, arrow shows small epandrial spine. Scale bars = 0.05 mm except Fig. 9 = 0.01 mm.