Asphondylia callicarpae Felt
Creators: name: Kolesik, Peter
name: Gagné, Raymond J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Cecidomyiidae
Asphondylia
Asphondylia callicarpae

description: Asphondylia callicarpae Felt
[Figs 3 a–o]
Asphondylia callicarpae Felt, 1918: 285.
Material examined. Syntypes, male, 3 females, and a pupal exuviae [fragment], Felt #a2843, reared from leaf galls on Callicarpa erioclona Schauer (Verbenaceae [now Lamiaceae]), Mt Makiling, Laguna Province, Luzon, the Philippines, collected at altitude 200–300 m viii-1917 and reared by L.B. Uichanco 3-ix-1917. One slide bears a male missing an antenna, another slide with a complete female except with its head inside an anterior fragment of a pupal exuviae, and the two other females are still pinned and well-preserved. Three years after the original description, Felt (1921d) described one female and two pupae reared by DvL from a leaf gall on Callicarpa longifolia Lam. collected at Mt Ungaran, Java, iv-1914, and concluded that they belonged to this species. We examined those specimens also: an uncleared female and pupa and a pupal exuviae, are on a single slide (Felt #a3102).
Description. Male. Wing length 2.3 mm, width 1.0 mm. Antenna: scape 2x longer than wide, pedicel slightly wider than long, flagellomeres slightly progressively shorter [Fig. 3g]. Palpus 3-segmented, division between second and third may be indistinct, segments progressively longer [Fig. 3d]. First tarsal segment with apicoventral spur short, robust, curved at basal third [Fig. 3e]. Tarsal claws robust, curved at midlength, empodia as long as claws, pulvilli minute [Fig. 3f]. Gonostylus as wide as long in posterior view, one tooth long and pointed, one short and blunt [Fig. 3h].
Female. Wing length 2.6 mm, width 1.0 mm, vein R 5 joining C at wing apex, R 1 2/3 wing length [Fig. 3j]. Flagellomeres 1–9 progressively slightly shorter, 10–12 progressively much shorter, first flagellomere 5x longer than wide [Fig. 3k]. Palpus 3-segmented, segments progressively longer [Fig. 3i]. Needle-like protrusible part of ovipositor 2.4x longer than seventh sternite [Fig. 3l].
Pupa. The anterior end of the pupal exuviae fragment collected in 1917 in the Philippines and mounted by Felt has large antennal horns with finely serrated inner edges, one large anterior frontal horn and three smaller posterior frontal horns placed in the shape of an isosceles triangle, the posteriormost, situated adjacent to the labella, recurved and rugose [Fig. 3m].
Larva unknown.
Remarks. The pupa has serrated inner edges of the antennal horns, and the posteriormost of the three lower frontal horns is somewhat removed from the other two and uniquely rugose. We note that the frontal horns of the Javan specimens [Figs 3m, n] are noticeably larger than those seen on the Philippine pupa [Fig. 3m]. We defer to future study, possibly until larvae can be compared, whether that difference is a specific one.
Biology. Uichanco (1919) reared the type specimens in the Philippines from leaf galls on Callicarpa erioclona Schauer (gall No. 18147, Plate X Fig. 2 [Fig. 3a]) and described the gall as about 30 mm, width 15 mm, thickness 16 mm, polythalamous, consisting of an enlargement of the midrib and forming with the atrophied leaf lamina a single mass of succulent tissue. The enlarged portion is tomentose, concave above and convex on the nether surface. The petiole, usually the leaf apex, and a small portion at the base are sometimes unaffected. The hair covering is long, dark brown and concolorous with the normal short pubescence of the plant. Larval chambers are subellipsoid, their size variable and arranged irregularly in close proximity to the upper, concave surface. The deformation is confined to younger, subterminal leaves. Galls were abundant at the type locality and present most of the year (Uichanco 1919). DvL (1921, Fig. 8 [Fig. 3c]) and DvLR & DvL (1926, gall No. 1291, Fig. 927 [Fig. 3b]) reported a similar gall on Callicarpa longifolia from several localities in Indonesia. The insects reared from the Indonesian galls were examined by Felt who considered them conspecific with the insects from the Philippine galls (Felt 1921b; DvLR & DvL 1926).
Geographical distribution. This species is known from its type locality at Mt Makiling, Laguna Province, Luzon, in the Philippines where it was reared from Callicarpa erioclona viii-1917 (Felt 1918) and from several localities in Indonesia (DvLR & DvL 1926) where the galls were found on Callicarpa longifolia on Java at Mt Muria, alt. 500 m, x-1912; Ciharum, near Cibeber,, alt. 1000 m, vi-1916; Cadas Malang, near Cibeber, alt. 1000 m, iv-1917; Mt Gede, Cibodas, alt. 1500 m, ix-1918; Pesewahan, south of Cibadak, near Bogor, alt. 600 m, viii-1918; Mt Ungaran, alt. 1200 m, xi-1919; Wanayasa, near Purwakarta, alt. 1000 m, vii-1920 and in Sumatra at Rimbo Pengadang vi-1916.
description: Published as part of Kolesik, Peter & Gagné, Raymond J., 2020, A review of the gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) of Indonesia: taxonomy, biology and adult key to genera, pp. 1-82 in Zootaxa 4847 (1) on page 11, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4847.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4406856