Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2024 | 16(6): 25465–25469
ISSN 0974-7907
(Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9036.16.6.25465-25469
#9036 | Received 19 March 2024 | Final received 06 May 2024 | Finally
accepted 14 June 2024
Lasioptera sharma, a new species of gall midge (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) feeding
on Leea indica
(Vitaceae) in India
Duraikannu Vasanthakumar
1, Rajiv Loganathan 2 &
Palanisamy Senthilkumar
3
1 Western Regional Centre,
Zoological Survey of India, Akurdi, Pune, Maharashtra
411044, India.
2,3 Department of Genetic
Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Katankulathur,
Tamil Nadu 603203, India.
1 duraivasanthakumar@gmail.com, 2
rajiv.lo2413@gmail.com, 3 mpsenthilkumar@gmail.com (corresponding
author)
ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:253F2E28-4D2A-4778-A7A0-A9CB38A039BE
Editor: Radheshyam M.
Sharma Pune, Maharashtra, India. Date of publication: 26 June 2024
(online & print)
Citation: Vasanthakumar, D., R. Loganathan & P. Senthilkumar (2024). Lasioptera sharma, a new species of gall midge (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) feeding
on Leea indica
(Vitaceae) in India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 16(6): 25465–25469. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9036.16.6.25465-25469
Copyright: © Vasanthakumar et al. 2024. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: The work is based on the annual research programme of the Zoological Survey of India, WRC, Pune
(Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Govt. of India).
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The first author is grateful to
the director of ZSI, Kolkata, and the officer-in-charge, WRC, ZSI, Pune for
facilities and Dr. Peter Kolesik for his comments on the early
draft of the manuscript.
Abstract: A new species of gall midge
associated with the leaves of Leea indica (Burm.fil.) Merr. (Vitaceae) is described and
illustrated. Two species of Lasioptera have
been reported from the plant genus Leea so far
and the present species is the third one, known to cause galls on the leaves of
Leea indica.
The type specimens are deposited in the National Zoological Collection,
Zoological Survey of India, Western Regional Centre, Pune, India.
Keywords: Bandicoot Berry, Gall midge, Lasioptera, leaf galls, Mollem,
Western Ghats.
The genus Lasioptera
includes more than 120 species until now, belonging to Lasiopterini,
and Lasiopteridi (Gagné
& Jaschhof 2021). Up to now, two species of gall
midges have been reported from Leea species: Lasioptera manilensis
Felt 1918 (Host plant: Leea manillensis) from the Philippines and Asphondylia leeae
Felt, 1921 (Host plant: Leea indica) from Indonesia (Felt 1918, 1921; Kolesik & Gagné 2020). From
India, leaf galls on Leea indica were first reported by Mani (1959)
from southern parts of Western Ghats of India but the causative organism was
not known. The species was likely not described because adults could not be
collected from these galls. Subsequently, Sharma (2003) reared a few adult
female gall midges from the leaf galls of L. indica
and identified them as Lasioptera sp. The species
was not described due to the lack of available male specimens.
The present attempt to rear adult
gall midges from the leaf galls of L. indica
collected from Mollem, Goa yielded several adult male
and female specimens of Lasioptera sp. The
specimens were processed and mounted in Canada balsam as per the method
described by Kolesik et al. (2015). Holotypes and
paratypes were carefully prepared and subsequently deposited in the collection
of the Zoological Survey of India, WRC, Pune. In this paper, we formally
describe it as a new species Lasioptera sharma and its affinities are discussed.
Lasioptera Meigen
1818.
Type species, Lasioptera
picta Meigen (subs.
des. Karsch 1877: 14; validated ICZN 1970: 75) = rubi Schrank. Refer to Gagné & Jaschhof (2021) for
the detailed synonymic list of Lasioptera.
The members of the genus Lasioptera can be distinguished by several
apomorphic features: antennae typically possessing more than 12 antennal
flagellomeres; the male 7th tergite greatly reduced in size compared
to 6th tergite and the gonostylus with a
strong apical claw. In females, the 8th tergite is usually
longitudinally divided into two discrete sclerites; fused cerci are
cylindrical, with a glabrous dorsal, saddle-shaped area, usually with prominent
hooked setae, and the remainder microtrichose with
scattered setae (Yukawa et al. 2019 & Gagné
2018).
Lasioptera sharma Vasanthakumar
sp. nov.
(Figure 1–6; Image 1–7)
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:084FE827-2F0E-4347-AB1C-E6F27FBC9EF0
Material examined
Holotype: Ent 10/269 (on slide),
10.vii.2021, male, Mollem (15.3777°N; 74.23059°E),
Goa, India, collected as gall by P.S. Bhatnagar & party, ZSI WRC, Pune.
Paratypes: 3 males (Ent 10/270),
5 females (Ent 10/271), 4 pupa (Ent 10/272), 4 pupal exuviae (Ent 10/273), 4 larva (Ent 10/274) same data as
holotype.
Description: Head: Eyes connate, 4–5 facets
long at the vertex, facets circular, closely adjacent. Frontoclypeal
setae 30-–36 in number. Palpus 3-segmented, segments successively longer, first
palpal segment 21 μm,
second 33–35 μm, third 36–39 μm
(Figure 1). Antenna: scape, pedicel globose, densely covered with scales;
flagellomeres 12–15 in male (n = 4), 17–19 in female (n = 5); first two
flagellomeres partially fused, node of third flagellomere about 33–35μm, 1.2
times as long as wide (Figure 2), remaining flagellomeres except for apical
rectangular, wider than long.
Thorax: Wing: length in males,
1.5 mm (n = 4); in females, 1.7 mm (n = 5) 2.2–2.4 as long as wide (Figure 3).
Legs covered by dark brown scales. Tarsal claws toothed; teeth curved near the
base. Empodia as long as claws (Figure 3).
Male abdomen: Tergites 1–6
rectangular with two trichoid sensilla anteriorly and
row of setae posteriorly; Sclerotization of tergite 7–8 reduced to narrow band,
with two anterior trichoid sensilla and no posterior
setae; Sternites 2–7 quadrate with anterior pair of
closely adjacent trichoid sensilla, row of strong
setae posteriorly and few strong setae mesally;
sclerotization of sternite 8 greatly reduced anteriorly,
without anterior trichoid sensilla, with numerous
strong setae mesally and posteriorly. Terminalia: gonocoxite with numerous strong setae evenly distributed
ventrally, posterior two-thirds dorsally; gonostylus
broadened basally, tapering apically, with scattered setae, microtrichose
only basally, well- developed tooth apically; mediobasal
lobe sheathing aedeagus, slightly shorter than aedeagus; cerci separated by a
deep notch; hypoproct entire, shorter than aedeagus;
aedeagus rounded apically, longer than cerci (Figure 5).
Female Abdomen: Tergites 1–7 as
of male, tergite 8 divided into two longitudinal sclerites, each widened
posteriorly with one anterior trichoid sensilla at
mid -length and a few setae posteriorly. Sternites
2–7 as of male, sternite 8 not apparent. ovipositor
with a laterodistal group of 42–46 curved setae; cercus with 06 large, hooked
setae on dorsal saddle-shaped area and straight setae posteriorly (Image
7).
Larva (Image 2): white, with dark
brown spatula; Length 1.4–1.6 mm. Antenna is about twice as long as wide.
Cephalic apodemes are about twice as long as a head capsule. Spatula with a
long shaft and two pointed anterior teeth separated by v-shaped notch (Figure
4). On each side of the spatula one sternal papilla and four lateral papillae,
all asetose. Terminal segment with six papillae (Figure 6).
Pupa (Image 6): Orange when
young, brown when mature. Length 1.6–1.9 mm. Antennal bases developed into two
distinct triangular serrated horns (Image 5). cephalic setae 50–55 μm long; prothoracic spiracle elongate, curved, 87–90 μm long. Abdomen uniformly covered with tiny spicules.
Gall: Leaf gall (Image 1),
sub-cylindrical or sub-globose, nearly equally developed on both sides of the
leaf blade, though often the hypophyllous part is
somewhat larger and narrower than the epiphyllous, yellowish- green or brown,
glabrous, solid, hard, indehiscent; larval chambers 4 per gall (Image 1a); more
than 10 galls per leaf; exit hole, epi or hypophyllous
(Image 4); size 10–14 mm long and 5 mm thick (Mani 2000).
Etymology: The species is named in the honour of Dr. Radheshyam Muralidhar Sharma, an eminent Indian Cecidologist.
The specific epithet is used here as a noun in apposition.
Host plant: Leea
indica (Burm.fil.) Merr. (Vitaceae) commonly known
as Bandicoot Berry, is an evergreen perennial shrub distributed in India, Sri
Lanka, throughout South Asia, to northern Australia, Solomon Islands, New
Hebrides, and Fiji. This plant has numerous medicinal properties and used for
treating various diseases (Chatterjee & Prakashi
2003).
Distribution: India: Maharashtra, Pune
district, Tamhini (18.47380N; 73.4180E);
Goa: South Goa district, Mollem National Park
(15.37770N; 74.230590E).
Remarks: Lasioptera
sharma sp. nov. differs
from all other Indian species in having the following characteristics. Palpus
3-segmented, third female flagellomeres 1.2 times as long as wide, empodia longer than bend in claws, female cercus with 06
large hooked setae on dorsal
saddle-shaped area, gonostylus
broadened basally, tapering apically, the proportion of aedeagus, cerci, and hypoproct.
The present species is closely
related to L. manilensis Felt 1918. However L. manilensis
can be distinguished from Lasioptera sharma sp. nov., by the
structure of the ovipositor, the number of hooked spines the absence of
apically broadened setae on the cerci, and the proportion of third female
flagellomere. Also, the galls produced by L. manilensis
contain only one chamber whereas the galls produced by L. sharma contain 4 chambers. We could not compare this
species with the adult male and immature stages of L. manilensis
as the latter has been described only based on the adult female.
Lasioptera sharma sp. nov.
is the first report of a Lasioptera species
from the family Rutaceae from India. Kolesik & Gagné (2020) have
mentioned in the monograph that the species of Lasioptera
manilensis Felt, 1918 causing leaf galls on Leea manillensis Walp. (Rutaceae) from Philipines. A similar type of gall is also reported from Leea indica
but no adults have been described from it (Kolesik
& Gagné 2020).
For figure
& image - - click here for full PDF
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