Phytomyza abdominalis Zetterstedt

Guglya, Yuliia, 2021, Rearing mining flies (Diptera: Agromyzidae) from host plants as an instrument for associating females with males, with the description of seven new species, Zootaxa 5014 (1), pp. 1-158 : 63-64

Phytomyza abdominalis Zetterstedt

( Figs. 176–180 , 545–549 )

Material examined: Ukraine: Zhytomyr Region: near Tryhoryie , 50°11’N, 28°23’E, 1–19.v.2019, R. Mishustin, ex Hepatica nobilis (6♂ 10♀) .

Hosts. Ranunculaceae : Anemone L., Hepatica Mill. ( Benavent-Corai et al. 2005) .

Mine. ( Fig. 176 ) The solitary larva forms an upper surface brown blotch blister mine in overwintered leaves in early spring. Pupation takes place outside the mine in the soil. The exit slit is on the lower leaf surface. Adults emerge in May. One generation develops per year ( Spencer 1976)

Larva and puparium. ( Figs. 177–180 ) Both larva and puparium are milky-white, matt. The puparium is translucent, with black anterior and posterior spiracles, 3.0 mm long, with distinct but shallow segmentation. The surface of the puparium is quite smooth except for wide bands of minute spines. One row of sparse larger black spines encircles each segment medially. Posterior spiracles set flat on the body cuticle and entirely separate; black, with numerous fine sessile bulbs set in a circular configuration. Anal plate white, not protruding above the surface of the puparium viewed from the side and directed ventro-posteriorly.

Cephalopharyngeal skeleton. ( Fig. 545 ) Right mouthhook much larger than the left, each with ventral portion sharply abducted and bearing two accessory teeth. Intermediate sclerite long, straight, 1.23× as long as maximum height of left mouthhook. The mouthhook, the intermediate sclerite and the dorsal cornu centrally are strongly sclerotized, the dorsal cornu dorsally and ventrally and the ventral cornu much less so. The ventral cornu bears a narrow “closed” window in the posterior half. Indentation index 83.

Female head. ( Figs. 546, 547 ) Yellowish-brown, with antenna, oc tr and postgena black; orbit not projecting above eye in profile; 2 orb s, 2 fr s; lunule of medium height, broad, semicircular, reaching the level of the posterior fr s; pped large, flattened anteriorly and ventrally; gena medially 0.17× as high as maximum height of eye.

Female genitalia. ( Figs. 548, 549 ) Capsule of spermatheca relatively small, 0.15× as high as height of anterior part of oviscape. Spermathecae equal in size, dark brown, spherical. Internal duct invagination cylindrical, 0.14× as deep as height of spermatheca. Spermathecal duct weakly sclerotized, narrow, except near base of spermatheca dramatically widened and corrugated. Ventral receptacle S-shaped, with weakly sclerotized tail that is two-bladed in basal half. Body of receptacle spherical with uniformly curved basal connecting tube, strongly sclerotized, 0.68× as wide as capsule of spermatheca; with narrow opening, 0.46× as wide as diameter of spherical part of body.

Distribution. Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland ( Papp & Černý 2019). Ukraine (first record).

Comments. Over 60 infested leaves were collected. Spencer (1976) noted “several larvae feeding together”, but in the present study, despite relatively large mine size, all were formed by solitary larvae.

Figures

FIGURES 176–184. Figures 176–180: Phytomyza abdominalis Zetterstedt; 176: mine in Hepatica nobilis leaf; 177: larva viewed from the side; 178: puparium viewed from the side; 179: anterior segments of puparium (anterior view); 180: posterior segments of puparium (posterior view). Figures 181–184: Phytomyza aquilegiae Hardy; 181: mines in Aquilegia hybr. leaf; 182: empty puparium viewed from the side; 183: posterior segments of puparium (posterior view). 184: posterior spiracles (posterior view).

FIGURES 545–549. Phytomyza abdominalis Zetterstedt; 545: cephalopharyngeal skeleton; 546: frontal view of head; 547: head viewed from the side; 548: oviscape and spermathecae proportionally; 549 a–b: spermatheca and ventral receptacle proportionally; a: spermatheca; b: ventral receptacle.