Lestodiplosis leptospermi ( Skuse, 1888 ) Skuse, 1888

Kolesik, Peter & Gagné, Raymond J., 2016, Revision of early taxa of Australian gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), Zootaxa 4205 (4), pp. 301-338 : 323-324

Lestodiplosis leptospermi ( Skuse, 1888) , new combination

[ Fig. 13 ]

Cecidomyia (Diplosis) leptospermi Skuse, 1888: 68 .

Material studied. Holotype male (ANIC 29-38490), “Sydney (Masters).”

Associated gall. The type was “bred from malformed flowers of Leptospermum sp. in November“, in ANIC. The type retains one wing, legs, the partially shrivelled head and one antenna, and the abdomen with partially shrivelled terminalia.

Description. Wing 1.9 mm long, 0.9 mm wide; R4+5 straight, joining C slightly anteriad of wing apex; C broken at juncture with R4+5; Cu forked, reaching wing margin; Rs in form of spur on R4+5 midway between arculus and distal end of R1; wingfold reaching wing margin. Head with short occipital protuberance; palpus 4-segmented with palpiger present; antennal flagellomeres 12, binodal, with one circumfilar whorl on proximal and two on distal node. Tarsal claws simple, curved beyond midlength, as long as empodia. Terminalia: gonocoxite with rounded mediobasal lobe, gonostylus microtrichose basally, glabrous and carinate beyond; aedeagus cylindrical, as long as gonocoxites, blunt at apex, with several papillae terminally; cerci large, round, microtrichose, with few short setae; hypoproct trapezoid, microtrichose.

Remarks. Lestodiplosis spp. are specific or generalist predators of insects and mites and can be found in flowers, malformed or not (RJG, pers. obs.). Lestodiplosis leptospermi was possibly associated with one of the two species of Dasineura known to form galls on flower and vegetative buds of L. laevigatum (see Schiner 1868, Dorchin & Adair 2011), but Skuse (1888) did not give a species name for the plant L. leptospermi came from. The relatively well-preserved morphology of the type should enable identification and subsequent redescription of the species once found again in Leptospermum flowers.

Figures

FIGURE 13. Lestodiplosis leptospermi (Skuse). Male. (a) wing, (b), terminalia in dorsal view (partially shrivelled, cerci and hypoproct flopped dorsoventrally), (c) eye bridge with occipital protuberance in dorsal view, (d) palpus with palpiger, (e) sixth flagellomere (partially damaged), (f) last tarsal segment with claws and empodium.