A revision of the types of Neotropical Porricondylinae (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae)
Author
Jaschhof, Mathias
text
Zootaxa
2014
3779
4
463
469
journal article
46207
10.11646/zootaxa.3779.4.4
c325c7c0-f7c1-4e82-8fcd-cb3eb2c4da3c
1175-5326
229347
A5762089-AADF-41B6-B9E9-70C0371C30C2
Asynapta citrinae
Felt, 1932
(
Fig. 6
)
Felt 1932
: 117.
Type
material.
Lectotype
(designated here). Male,
Puerto Rico
, Isabela, reared from larva
15 July 1931
, G.N. Wolcott (
NMNH
).
Paralectotypes
.
26 larvae
, mounted under a single coverslip, from locus typicus, with note by Felt “cambium of grapefruit twigs”.
Remarks.
Felt (1932)
also described the female of this species, but the specimen(s) he studied seem to be lost. The
lectotype
specimen is almost complete, including the head plus a number of anterior flagellomeres, one wing, and the terminalia, but is extremely pale, compressed and distorted.
Adult morphology.
Felt’s (1932) description is mainly concerned with coloration, a feature of little use for characterizing species of
Asynapta
. Due to the poor condition of the
lectotype
I can provide only little information in addition to Felt’s (1932) description. In the male, the eye bridge is dorsally 10 ommatidia long; the number of flagellomeres is 22; and the third flagellomere has the neck as long as the node. The elongate gonostylus has a small, acute spine apically. The copulatory organ is shown in
Figure 6
. According to
Felt (1932)
, the female also has 22 flagellomeres.
Remarks
. As information on the male genital structures is so inadequate, it is practically impossible to recognize
A. citrinae
on the basis of morphological characters alone. Knowledge of the secondary host plant, which is grapefruit (
Citrus
sp.), should help to find fresh specimens that are needed to provide a proper description of this species.
Classification.
Asynapta citrinae
, as well as
A. gossypii
and
A. mangiferae
, belong to a distinct subset of
Asynapta
that is characterized by several peculiarities of the copulatory organ (
Fig. 6
). The parameral apodemes are directed anteriad, not laterad or ventrolaterad as usual in
Asynapta
; the slender parameres are flexible and long enough to project posteriorly beyond the gonocoxites, the aedeagus head is large and poorly sclerotized (and its complexity is difficult to understand); and the ejaculatory apodeme is not traceable. Also, the parameres are basally bent ventrad, so protrude beyond the surface of the gonocoxites, which is facilitated by the large gonocoxal emargination (
Fig. 3
). In some of the species the gonostyli bear a single spine apically rather than a pectinate claw. I am not aware of such
Asynapta
occurring in the Nearctic or West Palearctic Regions, yet the East Palearctic / Oriental
Asynapta groverae
Jiang & Bu
no doubt belongs to this group.
Jiang & Bu (2004)
described
A. groverae
from
India
(Indore) and
China
(Shandong). I assume that
Asynapta lacunosa
Mamaev & Zaitzev
from
Somalia
is another species belonging here, but Mamaev & Zaitzev’s (1997) description gives no information on where exactly the paramere processes, illustrated in their fig. 2d, are inserted.