Black fungus gnats (Diptera: Sciaridae) found in association with cultivated plants and mushrooms in Australia, with notes on cosmopolitan pest species and biosecurity interceptions
Author
Broadley, Adam
Author
Kauschke, Ellen
Author
Mohrig, Werner
text
Zootaxa
2018
2018-04-30
4415
2
201
242
journal article
30153
10.11646/zootaxa.4415.2.1
f1f5d7f4-d946-4b3e-913c-48054bd05d37
1175-5326
1241916
41DE1572-F169-4177-B375-D806682534F6
Bradysia tilicola
(
Loew, 1850
)
(
Fig. 10 A–E
)
Sciara tilicola
Loew, 1850
[
Loew (1850)
: 18
].
Common synonyms
:
Bradysia amoena
(winnertz, 1867);
Bradysia caldaria
(Lintner, 1895)
;
Bradysia coprophila
(Lintner, 1895)
.
Literature
: winnertz (1867): 114–115 (as
Sciara amoena
);
Lintner (1895a)
: 394–396, figs 4, 5 a–e, plate I, figs 1–4, 8, 9, 11, 11 a (as
Sciara coprophila
);
Lintner (1895b)
: 397–399 (as
Sciara caldaria
);
Johannsen (1912)
: 120, 123, 136–137, plate III, figs 133, 144; Smith-Stocking (1936): 421-443, figs 1–3 (both as
Sciara coprophila
);
Lengersdorf (1925)
: 211, plate VII, fig. 29 (as
Sciara amoena
); Tuomikoski (1960): 129–132;
Freeman (1987)
: 202, fig. 10;
Blaschke-Berthold (1988)
: 347–350, figs 3, 8, 11; Menzel & Mohrig (2000): 147–151, figs 132–133 (all as
Bradysia amoena
); Menzel
et al
. (2006): 63–64; Menzel
et al.
(2013): 286–287; Mohrig
et al
. (2013): 171–172.
Material studied
.
3 males
, 1980, Melbourne, ex lab. colony,
ASCT
00053385 (
PABM
)/53386/53387 (
ASCU
), leg. A.J. Stocker. The determination is not certain, since males were embedded in an artificial resin which deformed the specimens by shrinking. The wings show a slight aberrant venation in all three specimens which might be caused by artificial rearing in the laboratory culture. The typical macrotrichia on y are present in the specimens. The specimens that we examined were part of a lab colony originally sourced from a laboratory in the
USA
(A. Stocker, personal communication). We have not seen any collected from the ‘wild’ yet. Until we do we must regard
B. tilicola
as not recorded in
Australia
.
B. tilicola
is widespread in the
Holarctic region
. It is common in flower pots, in glasshouses, and has been reared from fungi, tulip and lily bulbs, decaying onions, and young ling seedlings. In open landscapes, it has been found in gardens, farmland, alder carr woodland, moorland, and wetlands including fens, bogs, and sedge beds (Menzel
et al.
2006). In the southern hemisphere it has been reported from
Tristan da Cunha
archipelago, where it was introduced by humans.
Diagnostic remarks.
The species can easily be identified as belonging to the genus
Bradysia
by the comb-like row of bristles at the apex of the fore tibia, a rather long R1 and more than 2 bristles on the basal palp segment. It is characterized by the 4th flagellomere with l/w index of 2.5, a deep sensory pit on the basal segment of the palpus, macrotrichia on the x and y wing veins, hypopygium without a basal lobe, gonostylus with a short tooth located dorsally and a dense group of longer apical/subapical spines and a trapezoid tegmen. The macrotrichia on x and y are especially good diagnostic characters.
Economic importance
. The species is common in houses with plant pots but rare in greenhouses and mushroom cultures. It is usually a harmless cohabitant and does not cause economic damage to plants.
Distribution
. Holarctic. For the southern hemisphere there is only one verified report, from the
Tristan da Cunha
archipelago (Menzel
et al
., 2013) [the report from
New
Zealand
(
Sciara marcilla
Hutton, 1902
) is not certain (Mohrig & Jaschhof 1999: 96)].