Winnertzia solidaginis Felt, 1907

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 : 41

Winnertzia solidaginis Felt agg.

We have no doubt any more that W. solidaginis as circumscribed in our earlier revision of Swedish Winnertzia ( Jaschhof & Jaschhof 2013: 96 ff., fig. 42) comprises several discrete species. However, although we reexamined the morphology of all our specimens, altogether 128 males from all over Sweden (Skåne to Lule Lappmark), the outcome was inconclusive. On the one hand, we noticed morphological distinctions among our specimens; on the other hand, we failed to group those distinctions into a reasonable number of morphotypes. Our conclusion is that male morphology alone cannot solve this issue. There is also the fact that W. solidaginis designates originally a North American species, as do its four synonyms ( Gagné & Jaschhof 2017), which makes the whole matter considerably more complicated. For the time being we see no better solution than treating W. solidaginis as a species aggregate.

Material studied. Specimens listed by Jaschhof & Jaschhof (2013) and those numbered here CEC 3274– CEC 3334 (all in NHRS).