Liriomyza nigrissima Spencer

Lonsdale, Owen, 2011, The Liriomyza (Agromyzidae: Schizophora: Diptera) of California 2850, Zootaxa 2850 (1), pp. 1-123 : 78-81

Liriomyza nigrissima Spencer

Figs 175–177

Liriomyza nigrissima Spencer 1981: 254 . Spencer & Steyskal 1986: 108. Wing length mm 1.7mm (♂), 1.7mm (♀). Length of ultimate section of vein CuA 1 divided by penultimate section: 2.1–2.3. Eye height divided by gena height: 6.5. Scutum subshining. Anterodorsal corner of first flagellomere sometimes slightly pointed.

Chaetotaxy: One ori, two ors; three ori (becoming shorter anteriorly) and one ors in holotype. Acrostichal setulae in four rows.

Colouration: Calypter margin and hairs brown. Head dark brown with frons yellowish medially, and gena and inner-dorsal margin of parafacial paler; parafacial and inner margin of orbital plate sometimes entirely brownishyellow. Thorax dark brown with notopleuron yellowish along border (primarily posteromedial corner). Legs dark brown with tarsi paler to base. Abdomen dark brown.

Genitalia: Figs 175–177 . Surstylus with one small subapical spine (absent in holotype), apex broadly rounded and sides nearly parallel; inner surface of epandrium with dark plate near base of surstylus with three strong spines. Hypophallus absent. Paraphallus long, thin, tapering along length and continuous with anterolateral margin of basiphallus. Mesophallus dark, fused to distiphallus and not longer than wide. Distiphallus enclosing paired fringed structures and angled dorsally. Ejaculatory apodeme large, dark and with broad, asymmetric blade (one side thinner and atrophied to corner) and pileus ejaculatorius truncated and slightly thickened at ends.

Host. Unknown.

Range. USA. California [El Dorado *, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura].

Type material. Holotype, USA. California: Ventura Co., Point Mugu S.P., 1.iv.1977, K.A. Spencer (1♂, USNM) ; Paratype examined, USA. California: Riverside Co., Corona , 6mi SE, 12.iv.1965, D. Veirs (1♂ [head missing], EMEC) .

Additional material examined. USA. California: El Dorado Co., Blodgett For., 13mi E Georgetown , 16.vii.1967, J. Powell (1♀, EMEC) .

Comments. Liriomyza nigrissima is an easily identified species with an entirely dark body excluding a pale tint on the notopleuron, gena and parafacial, and a stout, dark bilobed distiphallus that is fused to a short, darker mesophallus. The dark, three-spined plate basal to the surstylus inside the epandrium is also distinct. The type material was collected in southern California, so the El Dorado female presented here significantly expands the known distribution of this species.

Figures

FIGURES 175–180. Figs 175–177: Liriomyza nigrissima Spencer, male holotype genitalia; 175: phallus, ventral; 176: phallus, left lateral and ventral, and ejaculatory apodeme, from original figures in Spencer (1981); 177: external components, ventral. Figs 178–180: L. paumensis Spencer, male holotype genitalia; 178: external components, ventrolateral; 179: ejaculatory apodeme; 180: phallus, right lateral.