Ophiomyia cf. chondrillae Spencer

Eiseman, Charles S., Lonsdale, Owen, Linden, John Van Der, Feldman, Tracy S. & Palmer, Michael W., 2021, Thirteen new species of Agromyzidae (Diptera) from the United States, with new host and distribution records for 32 additional species, Zootaxa 4931 (1), pp. 1-68 : 17

Ophiomyia cf. chondrillae Spencer

Material examined. IOWA: Allamakee Co., 5.ix.2017, em. spring 2018, J. van der Linden, ex Lactuca , # CSE4671 , CNC1135659–1135660 (1♁ 1♀) .

Hosts. Asteraceae : Chondrilla juncea L. ( Spencer & Steyskal 1986), * Lactuca L.

Larval mine. An externally visible stem mine.

Puparium. Details not recorded by either Spencer & Steyskal (1986) or us, but we believe the puparium was not covered by a “scab” as described in the Comments under Melanagromyza sp. 2.

Phenology and voltinism. The holotype of O. chondrillae , from Washington, is labeled with a date of 11 July; whether this was the collection or emergence date was not stated, but there are evidently at least two generations since our Iowa specimens emerged in spring from stems collected in early September .

Distribution. USA: *IA, WA ( Spencer & Steyskal 1986).

Comments. Ophiomyia chondrillae was described from a single specimen in poor condition ( Spencer & Steyskal 1986), which we have not examined, but our specimens key readily to this species in Spencer & Steyskal (1986). The morphology of the flies reared from Lactuca seems to fit this species, and we suspect that slight differences in genitalic morphology compared to the original illustrations are due to error or a difference in the angle in which the phallus was illustrated. Given this, and the fact that the host is in the same tribe ( Cichorieae ) as that of the holotype, we choose to regard them as conspecific until we can examine specimens reared from Chondrilla .