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8 December 2022 A New Stomatosema from the Australian Tropics - The First Species of Stomatosematidi (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) Known to Cause a Plant Gall
Peter Kolesik, Luke A. Halling
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Abstract

Stomatosematidi are by far the smallest of the four supertribes of Cecidomyiinae (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) containing 56 species. The life history of only one species has been known previously: adults of Stomatosema nemorum Kieffer were reared from larvae feeding on a mushroom, Lactarius sp. (Fungi: Russulaceae). Here we describe the larva and adults of a new species, Stomatosema gagnei Kolesik, that was found inducing pustulate leaf galls on Causonis trifolia (Vitaceae) plants in Cape York Peninsula, Australia. Stomatosema gagnei is the first Stomatosematidi with a described larva and the first known to cause a gall. The fact that a species of Stomatosematidi, a supertribe hypothesized to be the sister group to all remaining Cecidomyiinae, was found inducing a plant gall suggests that the first of the transitions from the ancestral fungus-feeding habit to plant-feeding occurred in Cecidomyiidae at the base of the Cecidomyiinae clade more than 100–110 million years ago, during the lower Cretaceous.

Peter Kolesik and Luke A. Halling "A New Stomatosema from the Australian Tropics - The First Species of Stomatosematidi (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) Known to Cause a Plant Gall," Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 124(3), 527-534, (8 December 2022). https://doi.org/10.4289/0013-8797.124.3.527
Published: 8 December 2022
KEYWORDS
bush grape
Cayratia trifolia (L.) Domin
fox grape
gall midge
insect taxonomy
three-leaved wild vine
transition to herbivory
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