Liriomyza pictella (Thomson)

Lonsdale, Owen, 2011, The Liriomyza (Agromyzidae: Schizophora: Diptera) of California 2850, Zootaxa 2850 (1), pp. 1-123 : 84

Liriomyza pictella (Thomson)

Fig. 244

Agromyza pictella Thomson 1869: 609 . Malloch 1913: 280 [as synonym of Agromyza scutellata Fallén ]; Melander 1913: 258 [as synonym of Agromyza scutellata var. puella Meigen ].

Liriomyza pictella . Frick 1957: 66; Spencer 1981: 257; Spencer & Steyskal 1986: 125.

Liriomyza sativae . Misidentification, in part. Frick 1957: 66, 1959: 408.

Wing length 1.6mm (♂). Female unknown. Length of ultimate section of vein CuA 1 divided by penultimate section approximately 3.0. Eye height divided by gena height unknown. Scutum shining.

Chaetotaxy: Fronto-orbital number unknown, presumably four. Acrostichal setulae presumably in four rows.

Colouration: Calypter margin and hairs dark. Head yellow with orbital plate greyish-black; posterolateral corner of frons brown to base of inner vertical bristle. Notum as described for L. sativae . Anepisternum brown with dorsal 1/3 and posterior margin yellow. Legs yellow with femora predominantly dark with venter yellowish, and tibiae and tarsi brownish-yellow.

Genitalia: Fig. 244 . Paraphallus relatively small and thin; hypophallus short, upcurved and poorly developed; mesophallus approximately as wide as long, slightly compressed dorsoventrally and separate from distiphallus; distiphallus pale, slightly darker dorsobasally, relatively large, globose, with width and length subequal, bulging basolaterally, and height slightly less than length; ejaculatory apodeme with thin dark stem, pileus ejaculatorius broad, and blade very wide, scalloped on distal margin and with dark subapical band.

Host. Unknown.

Range. USA. California [San Francisco].

Type material. Holotype, USA. California: “California” [San Francisco area, possibly Sacramento , 29.vii– 9.viii.1852] (1♂, NRS) [Not examined].

Comments. The above description was taken from Spencer (1981). Requests to the NRS for permission to examine the holotype were not answered. Spencer (1981) is followed here in treating L. pictella as a valid species known only from the holotype. The terminalia are similar to those of L. sativae , although the base of the distiphallus is broad and truncated as in L. eupatorii , however, the large ejaculatory apodeme and dark femora would exclude the possibility of these taxa being conspecific. The terminalia are also similar to those of L. artemisiae , L. tricornis and L. admiranda , but colour characters and slight genitalic differences again make these possibilities unlikely.

Figures

FIGURES 240–244. Figs 240–243: Liriomyza trixivora spec. nov., male genitalia; 240: phallus, ventral; 241: phallus, left lateral; 242: external components, ventral; 243: ejaculatory apodeme. Fig. 244: L. pictella (Thompson), ejaculatory apodeme, male phallus ventral and left lateral.