Asynapta citrinae Felt, 1932

Jaschhof, Mathias, 2014, A revision of the types of Neotropical Porricondylinae (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), Zootaxa 3779 (4), pp. 463-469 : 464

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.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 6. Male genital structures. 1 – 3: Asynapta mangiferae. 1: genitalia, ventral. 2: gonostylus, dorsomedial. 3: genitalia, lateral. 4 – 5: Camptomyia parrishi. 4: parameres and copulatory organ, ventral. 5: gonostylus, ventral. 6: Asynapta citrinae, parameres and aedeagus head, ventral. Scale 0.05 mm. ah = aedeagus head, ea = ejaculatory apodeme, p = paramere, pa = parameral apodeme, pp = paramere process.