Life histories and descriptions of adults and immature stages of two cryptic species, Aciurina ferruginea (Doane) and A. michaeli, new species (Diptera: Tephritidae), on Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus (Hooker) Nuttall in southern California

Publication Type:

Journal Article

Authors:

Source:

Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, Entomological Society of Washington, Volume 98, Issue 3, p.415-438 (1996)

Call Number:

A96GOE01IDUS

Keywords:

Aciurina ferruginea, Aciurina michaeli, Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus, fruit flies

Abstract:

Aciurina ferruginea (Doane) and the newly described species A. michaeli Goeden are sympatric univoltine fruit flies that form different, distinct types of axillary bud galls on branches of high-elevation plants of Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus (Hooker) Nuttall in southern California. Both species heretofore were called A. ferruginea; however, the gall attributed to this species in the literature in actuality belongs to A. michaeli. Accordingly, the gall of A. michaeli is smooth and beaked apically; the gall of A. ferruginea is subsperoidal and covered by many thin threadlike leaves, its shape apparently unlike other tephritid galls described to date. The adults of A. michaeli are described as having a wholly dark brown or dark reddish-brown scutellum that readily distinguishes them from A. ferruginea which have a yellow or reddish-yellow scutellum. The slightly sexually dimorphic, but otherwise indistinguishable, wing patterns of both species are described and illustrated. The egg, third instar, and puparium of A. michaeli and A. ferruginea are described, illustrated, and compared. The first and second instars of A. ferruginea also are described and illustrated. The eggs of both species have long pedicels that allow respiration by embryos within egg bodies buried during oviposition in axillary buds covered by resin. The third instar of A. michaeli is pyriform with abdominal tergites III–VI protrudent; the third instar of A. ferruginea is oblong-ellipsoidal. The prothorax in A. michaeli lacks the verruciform sensilla that circumscribe the prothorax in A. ferruginea in a single row. The anterior thoracic spiracles in A. michaeli have three or four papillae; whereas, A. ferruginea have five papillae. The puparium of A. michaeli is pale yellow; that of A. ferruginea is light to reddish-yellow.