Melanagromyza lini Spencer

Boucher, Stéphanie & Wheeler, Terry A., 2014, Neotropical Agromyzidae (Diptera) of the Mission Géodésique de l’Équateur: Becker (1920) revisited, Zootaxa 3779 (2), pp. 157-176 : 158-159

Melanagromyza lini Spencer

( Figs. 1–6 )

Melanagromyza lini Spencer 1963: 315 ; Sasakawa 1992a: 352, 1992c: 6; Sanabria de Arévalo 1994: 65. Melanagromyza aquilerai Spencer 1982: 8 , 37 (synonymized by Sasakawa 1992c). Agromyza aeneiventris Fallén , of Becker (1920), in part.

MNHN specimens. Ecuador: Cuenca, G. Rivet 1905 (1 ♂); Alausi, 2350 m, G. Rivet 1904 (1 ♀).

Additional material examined. Holotype ♂: Peru: Barranca, stem-miner of Linum . vii.1941, J. Lamas ( NMNH).

Host Plant. The holotype of M. lini was reared from Linum (Linaceae) ( Spencer 1963).

Comments. Four of five specimens identified by Becker as A. aeneiventris Fall. (= Melanagromyza aeneoventris (Fall.) , a Palaearctic species) were examined. These represent three different species: Melanagromyza lini ; M. memoranda Spencer 1973 ; and a new species, Melanagromyza pontis Boucher , described below.

Melanagromyza lini was first described from Peru ( Spencer 1963) and was later recorded in Chile ( Spencer 1982, as M. aguilerai Spencer ), Argentina ( Sasakawa 1992a) and Colombia (Sanabria de Arévalo 1994). Important characters observed are: width of frons 1.4 times eye width in dorsal view; upper eye distinctly pilose in male (apparently bare in holotype but eyes shriveled); 2 reclinate ors and 3 inclinate ori; orbital setulae in two irregular rows; orbit subshining, not widening anteriorly; parafacial absent or slightly projecting, forming only narrow ring (cheek) below eye; gena deepest at midpoint, about 0.25 times maximum height of eye; antennal bases separated by narrow, slightly elevated keel; third antennal segment small, rounded with very short whitish pubescence at apex; only one notopleural seta visible in Ecuadorian male, two in holotype and in female; mesonotum with bluish and greenish reflection; abdomen distinctly coppery; calypter and fringe white; wing length 2.6 mm in male (1.6 mm in Sasakawa (1992a) was probably an error) and 2.9 mm in female. Male genitalia with broad hypandrial arm and short apodeme ( Figs. 3, 4 ). Ejaculatory apodeme with narrow blade, slightly more expanded on knob side ( Fig. 5 , right side), with strong medial vein. Sasakawa (1992c) correctly pointed out that the surstylus is not conspicuously narrowing as described by Spencer (1963) and does not bear a few “short hairs” but rather numerous spines ( Fig. 6 ).

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 6. Melanagromyza lini Spencer, (1) phallus, lateral, (2) phallus, ventral, (3) hypandrium and epandrium. Inset shows hypandrium of freshly dissected specimen, (4) hypandrium and phallus, holotype, permanent mount, (5) ejaculatory apodeme. Inset shows freshly dissected specimen, (6) epandrium, lateroventral. Scale bars = 0.05 mm.