Calycomyza Hendel

Calycomyza Hendel, 1931: 65 [as subgenus of Dizygomyza]. Type species: Agromyza artemisiae Kaltenbach, 1856: 236, by original designation. Frick 1952a: 394 [as subgenus of Phytobia], 1956: 284, 1959: 387; Nowakowski 1962: 97 [as genus]; Spencer 1969: 144; Spencer and Steyskal 1986b: 140.

Adult Calycomyza are usually readily diagnosed by a whitish yellow head and shoulders (the dark Caribbean species C. obscura is an exception) with a black scutellum and antenna, and usually two dorsocentrals. Many species are relatively uniform in appearance and are often only separable on the basis of slight external and male genitalic characters. Many Liriomyza are similarly coloured, but almost all have a medially yellow scutellum, there are four dorsocentrals, and the ejaculatory duct is apically swollen and pigmented. Other diagnostic features of Calycomyza include weak reclinate orbital setulae in a single row, a shallow, semi-circular lunule and unmistakable Calycomyza -like genitalia, including a dense patch of scattered tubercle-like setae on the inner-distal margin of the epandrium and surstylus. A character not previously noted in the genus is a minute, round, heavily pigmented sclerite floating between the mesophallus and distiphallus. This "medial sclerite" (Figs 450, 451) is absent in several species, including C. humeralis (Roser), C. platyptera (Thompson) and C. verbenae (Hering), but it is otherwise widespread in the genus and possibly synapomorphic. Frick (1956) provided an excellent treatment of the Nearctic species known at the time, including a detailed description of biology and host plant species.