Asphondylia hilli Edwards 1916
Creators: name: Kolesik, Peter
name: Gagné, Raymond J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Cecidomyiidae
Asphondylia
Asphondylia hilli

description: Asphondylia hilli Edwards, 1916
[Figs 2 c, 3]
Asphondylia hilli Edwards, 1916: 498.
Material studied. Syntypes, females [one proved to be male] and pupa [lost], “N. Australia: Darwin, 11.xi.1915 (G. F. Hill).” Three syntypes are in SAMA, two in ANIC. In SAMA three pins bear two females and one male (mistaken for a female by Edwards), each labeled “Cotype”; in ANIC two pins bear two females, each labelled “Cotype”. The male and two females from SAMA were mounted on slides. The two ANIC females, both in good condition, remain pinned and are available for future morphological and DNA study. No pupa or pupal exuviae accompanied the types. The mounted male, designated here as lectotype (SAMA 29-004694), lacks the flagellomeres and three legs, one of the mounted females (paralectotype, SAMA 29-004695) lacks the head and legs, and the other female (paralectotype, SAMA 29-004696) has retained only the hind legs and abdomen.
Associated gall (from Edwards 1916): “Glandular, on the surface of the stem of an undetermined plant; very much resembling that figured by Kieffer 1913b (Figs 2 & 3 [our Fig. 2 c]) for Daphnephila glandifex except that the individual galls are quite separate at the base; in size the galls are 4–6 mm. long by 2–3 mm. broad, and on the piece of stem sent, which is only 3 in. x 1 / 3 in., there are about eighty galls. Only a single larva occupies each gall, pupation occurs within the gall, and the pupa emerges by boring a more or less circular hole at the apex.” Description. Colour (Edwards 1916): antennae dark brown, thorax dark greyish brown with two lines of yellowish hairs mixed with some dark ones, abdomen blackish, legs covered for most part with dark brown scales except on apical half of hind tibia and the whole of second hind tarsomere where light grey, wing covered with blackish hairs, halter blackish with base of stalk yellowish.
Male. Wing 2.8 mm long, 1.1 mm wide; R4+5 straight, joining C at wing apex; C broken at juncture with R4+5; Cu forked, reaching wing margin; Rs not present. Palpus four-segmented, first segment shortest, last two longest, second segment inserted subapically on first; palpiger not present. First tarsomere 1.5x longer than wide, with thin, strongly curved, pointed, ventroapical extension. Tarsal claws robust, blunt, slightly shorter than empodia. Terminalia with long aedeagus, small cerci and narrow, apically incised hypoproct.
Female. Wing 2.7 mm long, 1.1 mm wide. Antennae with 12 flagellomeres, first 6x as long as wide, second to eighth of equal length, 4x as long as wide, ninth 3x, tenth nearly 2x, eleventh scarcely longer than wide, twelfth globular (Edwards 1916). Seventh abdominal sternite 1.5x longer than sixth. Protrusible part of ovipositor 2.7x longer than seventh abdominal sternite.
Pupa (modified from Edwards 1916): antennal horns large, with serrated interior edges; four facial horns, one large in front of group of three smaller, two of which are some distance in front of third; colour of body dark brown.
Remarks. This species differs from other known Australian Asphondylia spp. by the four-segmented palpus with the second segment inserted subapically on the first and by the blunt tarsal claws.
description: Published as part of Kolesik, Peter & Gagné, Raymond J., 2016, Revision of early taxa of Australian gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), pp. 301-338 in Zootaxa 4205 (4) on pages 306-308, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4205.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/208241