Xyphosia laticauda (Meigen, 1826)

Evstigneev, D. A. & Glukhova, N. V., 2022, Tephritid flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia: new records and new host plants, Zoosystematica Rossica (China) 31 (1), pp. 118-129 : 125-126

Xyphosia laticauda (Meigen, 1826)

( Figs 44–51)

Material examined. Armenia, Aragatsotn Prov., Arailer Mt., mountainside facing Yeghvard town,

mountain meadow, 1 female reared 30.III.2019 from capitulum of Centaurea sp. collected on 24.VII.2018

(coll. D.A. Evstigneev). Russia, Kabardino-Balkarian

Republic, Elbrus Distr., Cheget Mt. , ca. 2100 m,

1 male reared 21.II.2015 from capitulum of Centaurea cheiranthifolia collected on 18–25.VII.2014 (coll. D.A. Evstigneev).

Distribution. Austria, France ( Hendel, 1927), Armenia (V. Korneyev, 1983), Switzerland ( Merz, 1994), Hungary ( Mihályi, 1959), Ukraine ( Merz, 1994; V. Korneyev, 2004), Czechoslovakia [without further details] ( Merz, 1994), Slovakia ( Dirlbek, 1999), North Caucasus in Russia (V. Korneyev, 2004), Italy ( Mazzon et al., 2021).

Comments. Centaurea cheiranthifolia Willd. is recorded for the first time as a host plant of X. laticauda . The morphological details of X. laticauda are illustrated in Figs 44–51. This species can be distinguished from the widespread X. miliaria (Schrank, 1781) by the following characters: thorax and abdomen black ( Figs 44, 47, 50), and margins of preapical narrowed part of aculeus smooth, not serrate ( Fig. 46).