Phytophaga cerealis Rondani, 1843

Sforzi, Alessandra & Sommaggio, Daniele, 2021, Catalog of the Diptera types described by Camillo Rondani, Zootaxa 4989 (1), pp. 1-438 : 82

Phytophaga cerealis Rondani, 1843

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: 1843c: 159.

TYPE LOCALITY: “ territorio Parmigiano [Parmese territory ( Italy)]” .

TYPE MATERIAL: 2 ♂♂, syntypes (one covered with mold), 15 ♀♀, syntypes (one missing right fore- and mid-legs; one glued to a cardboard; one missing right fore- and mid-legs, puparium pinned below specimen; one missing left wing, left fore- and mid-legs; one missing right wing and right fore-leg; one missing right wing), 2 specimens, syntypes (sex not determinable; one missing head, abdomen damaged, puparium pinned below specimen, the other missing head, right wing and hind-legs, abdomen damaged) ( MZUF: Box 65): Cecidomya [sic!] frumentaria Rnd. / 3328; 1 specimen, syntype (sex not determinable, legs and wings damaged) ( OUMNH Verrall-Collin Coll.: Box. 21): syntype / Type / Phytophaga G. n. [illegible word] Cecydomyia? P. cerealis Type Rondani, Parma / P. cerealis Ex Coll. Bigot; 1 specimen, syntype (sex not determinable, double-mounted: fastened by a micro pin to a polyethylene foam block on a standard insect pin, legs and wings damaged) ( OUMNH Verrall-Collin Coll.: Box. 21): syntype / Type / P. cerealis Ex Coll. Bigot.

CURRENT STATUS: junior synonym of Mayetiola destructor (Say, 1817) ( Skuhravá 1986: 185, Dahl et al. 1995: 29, Gagné 2010: 294, Gagné & Jaschhof 2017: 399).

REMARKS: Rondani (1843c: 159) described Phytophaga cerealis without specifying the number of specimens, giving a single measurement of length and providing specific characters for the male and female. He ( Rondani 1840b: 14) had already listed this nominal species in the genus Phytophaga together with the species Phytophaga salicina (Bouché, 1834) without giving any description. Rondani (1864b: 189) renamed Phytophaga cerealis as Cecidomya [sic!] frumentaria without giving any explanation and presumably placing the type material under this latter name. Gagné & Solinas (1996: 73) surmised that Rondani placed his specimens of Phytophaga cerealis with those of Cecidomya frumentaria and listed 19 specimens of the latter in the MZUF type series, without adding any labels (1996: 74). We consider the specimens of Cecidomya frumentaria Rondani in the MZUF and OUMNH as the type material of Phytophaga cerealis Rondani 1843 . Twenty-one syntypes were found in this study. O’Hara et al. (2011: 48) determined “ Cecidomya ” as “an incorrect subsequent spelling for Cecidomyia Meigen, 1803 ”, but incorrectly considered Phytophaga cerealis Rondani 1843 as a “ nomen nudum ” (2011: 145).