Lycoriella sativae ( Johannsen, 1912 )

Babytskiy, A. I., Rubanovska, N. V. & Bezsmertna, O. O., 2022, New Records Of Sciarid Species (Diptera, Sciaridae) From Ukraine. Iv, Zoodiversity 56 (6), pp. 435-446 : 442-444

Lycoriella sativae ( Johannsen, 1912) ( figs 20–25 )

Common synonyms: L. castanescens (Lengersdorf, 1940) , L. fucorum ( Frey, 1948) , L. agarici Loudon, 1978 .

M a t e r i a l e x a m i n e d. Ukraine, Odesa Region: Lebedivka, the bank of Black Sea , 45.82236° N, 30.14138° E, ca. 0 m a. s. l., sandy beach under cliff, with aspirator, 20.07.2016, 1 Ơ (A. Babytskiy) (No. 98, UkrBIN-795813) ; Ukraine, Ternopil Region: Mykulyntsi , 49.40126° N, 25.60140° E, ca. 300 m a.s.l., vegetable garden with potato and onion on the yard of detached house, Malaise trap, 19– 21.06.2016, 1 Ơ (A. Babytskiy) (No. 116, UkrBIN-795828) ; Ukraine, Volyn Region: outskirts of Turiisk , 51.06994° N, 24.54540° E, ca. 170 m a. s. l., ecotone meadow with ruderal grasses between wet sedge meadow and hornbeam forest, sweeping, 05.07.2017, 1 Ơ (A. Babytskiy) (No. 303) ; Ukraine, Volyn Region: Turiisk , 51.07981° N, 24.52999° E, ca. 150 m a. s. l., vegetable garden and orchard on the yard of detached house, Malaise trap, 04– 07.07.2017, 1 Ơ (A. Babytskiy) (No. 304) .

D i s t r i b u t i o n: A common Holarctic species. Palaearctic: Afghanistan, Austria, Bulgaria, China (Taiwan), Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal (Azores and Madeira) Romania, Russia (European part, West Siberia (North Altai), Chukotka, Krasnoyarsk Region), Slovakia, Spain (Balearic and Canary Islands, Iberian Peninsula), Sweden, Switzerland, Turkmenistan, Turkey (Asian territory), Ukraine (first record), United Kingdom. Nearctic: Canada (British Columbia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec), USA (Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia). Outside of Holarctic region is known from Australia (Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria), New Zealand, Tristan da Cunha Island, Norfolk Island, Subantarctic Islands ( Loudon, 1978; Gerbachevskaja-Pavluchenko, 1986; Metzner & Menzel, 1996; Sataeva, 2006; Komarov, 2011; Mohrig et al., 2013, 2019; Menzel et al., 2013; Broadley et al., 2018; Menzel & Vilkamaa, 2021; GBIF, 2022 e; this study).

Diagnosis. Male adults reach 2.0– 2.6 mm in length. Head dark brown to black. Compound eyes with interfacetal hairs, as frequent as facets and extending one facet width beyond outer curvature of facets. Eye bridge consists of 2 or 3 rows of ommatidia (2 rows on Ukrainian specimens). Face with fine 18–28 setae, arranged approximately radially. Clypeus with 2 to 3 median setae and 2 lateromedian setae. Maxillary palpus ( fig. 23 ) relatively short, 3-segmented. Basal palpal segment clavate, with deepened sensory pit and 4 to 7 setae dorsally, 2 or 3 of them significantly longer than others. Middle palpal segment ovate and 0.66 times as long as the other two, with four to five not long setae. Terminal palpal segment slender, cylindrical and subequal in length to basal segment, with 6 to 8 setae. Antennae 1.47 mm long and dark brown to black. Scape dark, with 5 to 6 setae placed ventrally. Pedicel dark. The 4th flagellomere is 2.50 times as long as wide with whitish yellow to brown setae 0.66 times as long as flagellomere width; length/width of the 4th flagellomere of Ukrainian specimen ( fig. 24 ) = 2.43–2.47, with a basal node index of 1.59–1.62. Flagellomere neck 0.2 of its length; sharply delimiteded. Thorax dark brown to black, with whitish yellow to brown setae. Posterior pronotum bare. Anterior pronotum with one weak seta. Mesonotum sparsely setose, with few lateral, central and scutellar setae; marginal part of mesonotum blackened. Scutellum with long and short setae arranged symmetrically, subapical setae make 0.75 of scutellum medial length. Episternum with 9–10 setae anteriorly. Wing is 1.4–1.9 mm long and 0.5–0.7 mm wide, width/length of wing = 0.35–0.42. Membrane pale to slightly brown. Posterior veins distinct and like the wing membrane without macrotrichia. M-fork well developed and wide open, about as long as the stM, M 1 and M 2 only slightly diverging, M 1 more arcuated than M 2; stM/Mfork = 0.80–0.91; R 1 short, makes 0.33 R, and falls into C far before the base of M-fork, R 1 /R of Ukrainian specimens = 0.44–0.65; x equal to y or x = 1.5 y, both bare, x/y of Ukrainian specimens = 1.58–1.82; stCuA short, makes 0.50–0.66 x, stCuA/x of Ukrainian specimens = 0.55–0.73; c = 0.60 w, c/w of Ukrainian specimens = 0.67–0.69. Halter yellow to pale brown with row of 9 to 11 dorsal setae. Legs yellow to pale brown. Tibial organ of p 1 ( fig. 22 ) marginated, with sparce patch of bristles. Mid- and hindtibia with 2 equals in length spurs. Length of spur/width of tibia: p 1 = 1.09–1.16, p 2 = 1.10–1.28, p 3 = 1.20–1.31. Length of metatarsus/length of tibia: p 1 = 0.51–0.56, p 2 = 0.44–0.49, p 3 = 0.44–0.52. Tarsal claws without teeth. Abdomen lighter than thorax, but distinctly browned. Hypopygium ( fig. 20 ) about as tall as wide, pale to dark brown. Intergonocoxal area ( fig. 25 ) with central dentate group of 6–7 setae. Gonocoxite yellow to pale brown, with short setae in the inner side. Gonostylus ( fig. 21 ) evenly rounded on the outer side, tapered apically and with a strong, dark apical tooth; inner side more or less cut out and to 0.50–0.66 of the upper surface covered with usually 4 to 6 diverging spines. Tip and ventral inner edge of gonostylus densely setose, setae particularly strong above and below the apical tooth; long upward whiplash seta present on the lower third of the gonostylar inner side ( fig. 21 ). Tegmen weakly sclerotized, broader than high with flat rounded tip. Aedeagus fairly long. Area of teeth large, about as high as wide, with single-pointed teeth ( Johannsen, 1912; Loudon, 1978; Menzel & Mohrig, 2000).

According to Vilkamaa & Menzel (2019) and Menzel & Vilkamaa (2021), Lycoriella includes 39 species in the Palaearctic Region. Lycoriella sativae is a very variable species with different variants of colour (dark and light forms), setosity, location of intergonocoxal setae, quantity and direction of gonostylar spines. This variation caused that different morphs of L. sativae were described as separate species. Now almost all of them have been synonymized ( Menzel & Mohrig, 2000; Mohrig et al., 2013). The most reliable characters to recognize L. sativae are the intergonocoxal basal group of setae and gonostylar structure. Lycoriella sativae is a common pest in greenhouses and mushroom hothouses, where it breeds in the various agricultures, and thus having a considerable economic importance ( Broadley et al., 2018). In Ukraine, the harmful impact of this species to the agriculture is unregistered because of the poor study of the local sciarid fauna ( Babytskiy et al., 2019 a, 2022). Lycoriella sativae has cosmopolitan distribution and is widespread in the Holarctic (Mohrig at al., 2013). In Ukraine, it is registered mainly in anthropogenic ecosystems as vegetable gardens in Ternopil and Volyn Regions. Also, one specimen was collected on the sandy beach of Black Sea bank in Odesa Region. Frey (1948) indicated that adults of this species were collected in mass from seaweed at the sea edge on the Swedish coast. The information about this species development as a hydrophilic and saprophagous with enormous flood tolerance is given in Metzner & Menzel (1996) with reference to Fritz (1982). Thus, the wet and overflood habitats as a coastal seaweed overgrowth can be considered as favourable for L. sativae .

We consider it our pleasant obligation to express sincere gratitude to our colleagues and friends, who supported our work, among them, Valery Korneyev (I. I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine) for his ongoing help, scientific guidance and valuable advice, and Frank Menzel (Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut, Müncheberg, Germany) for his kind help in identification of the specimens. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Figures

Figs 20–25.Lycoriella sativae Ơ: 20 — hypopygium, ventral view; 21 — gonostylus, ventral view; 22 — anterior apex of fore tibia (p1) with tibial organ, prolateral view; 23 — maxillary palpus, frontal view; 24 — fourth flagellomere, lateral view; 25 — intergonocoxal setae group, ventral view. Scale 0.1 mm.