Ophiomyia maura Meigen
Creators: name: Eiseman, Charles S.
name: Lonsdale, Owen
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Agromyzidae
Ophiomyia
Ophiomyia maura

description: Ophiomyia maura (Meigen)
(Figs. 89–90)
Material examined. CONNECTICUT: Litchfield Co., Canaan, 21.vii.2015, em. 29.vii.2015, C. Vispo, ex Solidago canadensis, #CSE2168, CNC564684 (1♀); MAINE: Knox Co., Camden, Bald Mountain, 5.x.2013, em. 20.iii.2014, C.S. Eiseman, ex Oclemena acuminata, #CSE1011, CNC384784 (1♂); MASSACHUSETTS: Berkshire Co., Lenox, Parsons Marsh, 20.vi.2017, em. 24.vi.2017, C.S. Eiseman, ex Solidago patula, #CSE3853, CNC939713 (1♂); Franklin Co., Montague, Montague Plains Wildlife Management Area, 8.vi.2017, em. 21.vi.2017, C.S. Eiseman, ex Solidago arguta, #CSE3843, CNC939720 (1♂); Northfield, 276 Old Wendell Rd., 10.x.2016, em. 19.iv.2017, C.S. Eiseman, ex Eurybia divaricata, #CSE3524, CNC939673 (1♂); 2.vii.2017, em. 15.vii.2017, C.S. Eiseman, ex Euthamia graminifolia, #CSE3956, CNC939661 (1♂); Hampshire Co., Pelham, Butter Hill, 21.vi.2013, em. 24.vi.2013, C.S. Eiseman, ex Solidago caesia, #CSE591 (2♀); South Hadley, near Lithia Springs Reservoir, 11.v.2016, em. 2.vi.2016, C.S. Eiseman, ex Solidago arguta, #CSE2536 (1♀); Middlesex Co., Shirley, 42.556117, -71.613381, 3.viii.2017, em. 9.viii.2017, C.S. Eiseman, ex Solidago gigantea, #CSE4095, CNC939727, CNC9397278 (1♂ 1♀); Nantucket Co., Nantucket, Gardner Farm, 13.vi.2013, em. 24.vi.2013, C.S. Eiseman, ex Solidago latissimifolia, #CSE600 (1♀); Nantucket, Squam Swamp, 12.vi.2013, em. 26–30.vi.2013, C.S. Eiseman, ex Solidago latissimifolia, #CSE609, CNC384817, CNC384818 (1♂ 1♀); NEW YORK: Columbia Co., Ghent, 17.vii.2015, em. 30.vii.2015, C. Vispo, ex Solidago canadensis, #CSE2166; VERMONT: Chittenden Co., South Burlington, Winooski Gorge, 29.vi.2014, em. 10.vii.2014, C.S. Eiseman, ex Solidago flexicaulis, #CSE1167, CNC384885 (1♂).
Hosts. Asteraceae: Eurybia divaricata (L.) G.L. Nesom, * Euthamia graminifolia (L.) Nutt., * Oclemena acuminata (Michx.) Greene, Solidago altissima L., S. * arguta Aiton, S. caesia L., S. canadensis L., S. flexicaulis L., S. gigantea Aiton, S. * latissimifolia Mill., S. * patula Muhl. ex Willd., S. speciosa Nutt., S. rugosa Mill. (Frick 1959; Scheffer & Lonsdale 2018). Frick (1959) also listed Solidago juncea Aiton; we have seen mines consistent with those of our reared Ophiomyia maura specimens on this host, as well as on Doellingeria umbellata (Mill.) Nees. Frick (1959) additionally listed Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (L.) G.L. Nesom, S. pilosum (Willd.) G.L. Nesom, and S. undulatum (L.) G.L. Nesom, but these records likely refer to another species such as O. parda.
Leaf mine. (Fig. 89) Upper surface, whitish; entirely linear, very long and narrow (1 mm wide at the end). Under magnification, the frass in the early part of the mine is visible as very widely spaced grains along the sides. For the remainder of the length, the frass takes the form of a very thin, almost continuous line, generally along one side or the other, sometimes becoming irregularly squiggly toward the end. In the single mine on Oclemena from which an adult was reared, the frass was instead deposited in minute, widely spaced grains throughout the length of the mine. The single mine found on Euthamia graminifolia was formed entirely on the lower leaf surface, not switching to the upper surface as in Ophiomyia euthamiae.
Puparium. (Fig. 90) Formed within the leaf, in a small chamber on the lower surface, sometimes preceded by a short epidermal track. In our experience the puparium usually appears bluish-green when occupied, whitish or colorless when empty. However, in some cases it is black, including the Vermont and Maine examples from which we reared adults.
Distribution. USA: *CT, *MA, *ME, NY, *VT; Canada (see below); Europe; Japan. Frick’s (1959) records from CA, GA, MD, MI, and PA require confirmation, but based on leaf mines we have found on Solidago, we suspect the range of Ophiomyia maura includes CO, MN, and OH.
Comments. Frick’s (1959) concept of Ophiomyia maura included specimens from California and throughout the eastern USA, with host records including both “ Aster ” (Eurybia and Symphyotrichum) and Solidago. In Canada, Spencer (1969) identified males from Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec as belonging to this species, also citing empty leaf mines on Solidago caesia found in Ontario. He stated that O. maura “feeds indiscriminately on Aster and Solidago ”, forming a “long, narrow, winding, greenish linear mine, with frass in large, widely-spaced black lumps”. He referred to Frost’s (1924) discussion of “ Agromyza curvipalpis var. texana Mall. ” in suggesting that “there is possibly a second species occurring on these hosts.” Frost had stated that “the mines produced on the two genera of plants would scarcely be recognized as having been made by the same species of insect... On the various species of Solidago from which the larva has been bred [the same list given by Frick (1959)], the mine is long, serpentine, and whitish in color, with little or no visible frass. The mine on the leaves of Aster is serpentine, greenish in color, and more tortuous than the mine on Solidago, and the frass is arranged in three or four conspicuous spots.” Spencer (1969) seemed to imply that the Canadian mines on S. caesia matched the description of those on “ Aster,” but this was not explicitly stated.
Spencer & Steyskal (1986) considered all past references to O. maura in North America to represent O. quinta Spencer, which Spencer (1969) had described from a single male from Ontario. This was based on the examination of just four specimens: two males Spencer reared from “ Aster ” collected in Arkansas, and two specimens reared from Solidago by Frost. Of the latter, one was a male from New York reared in 1918 (and thus presumably was from a mine of the “little or no visible frass” type discussed by Frost (1924)), and the other was a female from Pennsylvania. Spencer (1990) stated that “my recent studies (Spencer & Steyskal, 1986) have shown that the true maura may be restricted to eastern Canada, where Griffiths has reared specimens from Solidago with genitalia apparently identical to those of European maura.” Despite the use of the word “eastern,” he appears to have been referring to Griffiths’ Alberta specimens mentioned in Spencer & Steyskal (1986), with the aedeagus as in European O. maura but the gena acute. Spencer (1990) further stated that the genitalia illustrated for O. maura by Spencer (1969), based on a caught specimen from either Manitoba or Quebec, seemed to represent a species distinct from both O. maura and O. quinta, but this cannot be verified with the material available, for which the permanently mounted genitalia are preserved on an angle that makes comparison difficult.
Our observations of Ophiomyia leaf mines on Astereae are consistent with those of Frost (1924): the mines we have seen on several different species of Symphyotrichum are either entirely greenish or else whitish mottled with green, with frass deposited in occasional, conspicuous lumps (the larger lumps lacking in some mines on S. cordifolium), whereas those on Solidago are invariably whitish with inconspicuous frass. From the mines on Symphyotrichum, we have so far reared only O. parda; from those on Solidago, we have reared only O. maura. Clearly, Spencer & Steyskal’s (1986) assertion that all previous North American records of O. maura refer to O. quinta is incorrect, and we are inclined to wonder if the two Frost specimens they examined represent misidentified flies or host plants.
Following the examination of type and other specimens deposited in the CNC, the only verified material of Ophiomyia quinta is the single male holotype, which is readily differentiated from O. maura if the phallus is examined: the distiphallus of European and Nearctic O. maura is much shallower, the base is almost entirely enclosed, the internal shelf-like process is much shorter and straighter, the anterodorsal tube-like process is larger and darker, and the lateral surface of the distiphallus has a deep S-shaped fold. The genitalia of O. carolinensis Spencer are also similar, but the base of the distiphallus has a small subconical protuberance.
description: Published as part of Eiseman, Charles S. & Lonsdale, Owen, 2018, New state and host records for Agromyzidae (Diptera) in the United States, with the description of thirty new species, pp. 1-156 in Zootaxa 4479 (1) on pages 21-22, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4479.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/1452913