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Species richness of gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) in the main biogeographical regions of the world
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... Fungus gnats and gall midges are both members of the superfamily Sciaroidea and are themselves large families comprising over 5000 and 2000 described species respectively (Skuhrava 2006;Shin et al. 2013). Several fungus gnat species are synanthropic and are receptive to being cultured in laboratory conditions, and as such they are the most well-studied of the three clades in terms of their genetics and sex determination (for reviews see Sánchez 2010;Gerbi 2022). ...
... Gall midges represent one of the most species-diverse families of flies, comprising over 5000 known species (Skuhrava 2006;Dorchin et al. 2019). They are relatively closely related to fungus gnats; both are thought to have originated from the more primitive family Mycetophilidae. ...
Sexual reproduction is ubiquitous in eukaryotes, but the mechanisms by which sex is determined are diverse and undergo rapid turnovers in short evolutionary timescales. Usually, an embryo’s sex is fated at the moment of fertilisation, but in rare instances it is the maternal genotype that determines the offspring’s sex. These systems are often characterised by mothers producing single-sex broods, a phenomenon known as monogeny. Monogenic reproduction is well documented in Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps), where it is associated with a eusocial lifestyle. However, it is also known to occur in three families in Diptera (true flies): Sciaridae, Cecidomyiidae and Calliphoridae. Here we review current knowledge of monogenic reproduction in these dipteran clades. We discuss how this strange reproductive strategy might evolve, and we consider the potential contributions of inbreeding, sex ratio distorters, and polygenic control of the sex ratio. Finally, we provide suggestions on future work to elucidate the origins of this unusual reproductive strategy. We propose that studying these systems will contribute to our understanding of the evolution and turnover of sex determination systems.
... Currently there are 6590 species and 812 genera in this family (Gagné & Jaschhof 2017). Of them, 3122 species are known to occur in the Palaearctic Region, and more than 1800 species in 270 genera are known to occur in Europe (Skuhravá 2006). Mycodiplosis Rübsaamen, 1895 is a large genus and currently includes 46 species, which occur widespread in various countries of the world. ...
Larvae of Mycodiplosis coniophaga (Winnertz, 1853) were found in colonies of rust fungus Phragmidium violaceum (Schultz) Wint. (Uredinales) on the leaves of Rubus anatolicus Focke (Rosaceae) near Zegreen village in Lattakia Province in western Syria during May 2010. It is the first record of Mycodiplosis coniophaga in Syria. Egg, larva, pupa and adults are shortly described and illustrated, life cycle, occurrence in Syria and a map of its distribution in Europe are given.
... Genus Janetiella Kieffer, is distributed in the Holarctic region, with twenty-three species (Gagné & Jaschhof 2021). Of these, fourteen species are found in Europe, three in Asia and five in North America (Skuhravá, 2006). This is the first record of this genus from Iran. ...
... Enallodiplosis discordis belongs to the gall midge family (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), where the true significance and role of many species in forest ecosystems is unknown. As many Cecidomyiidae are small inconspicuous flies they can easily be overlooked (Gagné 1994, Skuhravá 2005, but doubtlessly are significant and widespread components of forest and agricultural ecosystems (see e.g. Cilbircioğlu 2009, Altamirano et al. 2016, with many forest species still undescribed ). ...
The coastal desert of Peru and Chile is home to Prosopis (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae)
tree species that are exceptionally well-adapted to the hyperarid conditions
and keystone in dry-forest ecosystems. From 2001 to 2018, Prosopis in Peru have
suffered widespread defoliation and die-back, with consequent deforestation and
collapse in pod production. This paper reports a new insect plague species of Prosopis
forest in Peru: Enallodiplosis discordis Gagné 1994 (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) as a
fiercely defoliating agent contributing to widespread Prosopis mortality. An analysis
of E. discordis larval taxonomy, life cycle and plague infestation, following El Niño
Southern Oscillation (ENSO) 1998/99 is provided. Using distinct lines of evidence,
its spread, distribution, and ecology are examined. Over two decades of fieldwork,
Prosopis forest die-back and loss was observed devastating rural livelihoods and
ecosystem services across lowland regions of southern (Ica), central and northern
coastal Peru (Lambayeque, La Libertad, Piura). The collapse in production of Prosopis
pods (algarroba, huaranga) and honey was recorded. Supplementary notes provide
observations of: (i) plague development, changing land-use and climate, (ii)
biological and physical control of E. discordis, (iii) the moth Melipotis aff. indomita
(Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) as a concurrent defoliator of Prosopis.
... Insect-driven gall formation on plants was observed globally (Skuhravá, 2006;Tokuda and Yukawa, 2007;Skuhravá and Skuhravý, 2009) and gall-forming insects have been reported as invasive species, e.g., in Europe (Roques et al., 2016). The formation of galls is linked with the phenology and the highest rates of galls appear when the foliage is developed to its maximum extent. ...
Processes that change the carbon exchange between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere are pivotal in understanding climate impact on global scale. Volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions change substantially with biotic stressors like gall-forming insects. We provide a first global estimate of the effect of changes in VOC emission dynamics due to parasitic gall-forming insects on broad-leaved tree species. Overall, the effect investigated lead to a reduction in VOC emissions on global scale which lead to changes in the carbon driven climate feedback loop.
... Fossil evidences from the Tertiary support this proposition (Möhn 1960, Gagné 1968). However, the Cecidomyiidae possibly arose during the Oligocene-Eocene epochs (Skuhravá 2006). The discovery of Holometabola-induced galls on the fronds of Psaronius (Filicopsida: Marattiales) from the Carboniferous (Labandeira and Phillips 1996) currently challenges the premise that gall-inducing habit originated concurrently with the diversification of angiosperms (Labandeira 1998). ...
Galls are modified, invariably symmetrical, naturally developing plant structures that arise because of messages from certain specialist insects, mostly from the Thysanoptera, Hemiptera, Diptera, and Hymenoptera, and in a lesser frequency from the Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Several species of the Eriophyoidea (Acari) induce galls and wherever appropriate, we have considered examples from the Eriophyoidea as well, generically referred under the term“insects”.The insects live within them, deriving nourishment and shelter.When these insects attack plant tissues, osmotic-change–related stress increases, thus stimulating alterations in gas exchange and subcellular metabolic functions. The osmotic stress alters the electrical properties of the plant-cell plasma membranes and impacts on indole-acetic acid synthesis and activity, which, in turn, affects the H ⁺ -transport. Insect action stimulates parts of host-cell wall to break down and the degenerated wall materials in the cytoplasm act as elicitors. In such contexts the susceptible plants use flexible strategies to mitigate stress, which generally manifest as galls. Inherited traits also play a role in providing specific shapes to the gall, which is coordinated by the innate correlating morphogenetic factors that operate normally in the plant.The gall-inducing Diptera (Cecidomyiidae), Hemiptera (Sternorrhyncha), and Hymenoptera (Cynipidae) induce galls of highly defined and exquisite shapes. Almost all of these insects are known for their specificity to plants.The gall-inducing insects, unlike many of their free-living relatives, discriminate between plants and choose from them. Selection of a particular plant by a gall-inducing insect is not a matter of chance, given that the insect encounters varied plant taxa in the natural environment. The gall-inducing insects preferentially feed on specific plant organs, or parts of these, and on specific plant species. One recent explanation is that the gall-inducing insects prefer certain plants or parts of those plants, because they need the lipidic materials, e.g., sterols, available in those plant parts, which the insects utilize for building hormones critically necessary for their metamorphosis. Because of the sedentary nature of the juvenile stages of the inducing insect, the gravid females endowed with specialized sensory structures play a key role in selecting the site precisely for oviposition and thus for the progeny. Although a majority of gall-inducing insects are restricted to specific plant taxa, some of them, as we presently know, are indicated to be capable of inducing galls on plant species closely related to their most-preferred hosts, thus demonstrating some level of oligophagy. A few species of Asphondyliina and Schizomyiina (Cecidomyiidae) are presently indicated as polyphagous. Clearly demonstrated host shifts and adaptive radiation in some of the European and North-American gall-inducingTephritidae populations explain the evolution of sympatric host races, more because of changes either in the preference of feeding and/or oviposition sites or by acquiring “new” physiological adaptations to new plants or through assortative mating. Differences in the temporally regulated flowering and leafing phenologies in the susceptible plants possibly play a role in isolating gall-inducing insect populations, which enable divergence and diversification via genetic drift.The general understanding, as of now, is that host shifts and radiation in gall-inducing insects are more complex than what is known in their non-gall-inducing allies. Such a complexity is attributed to intricate relationships of gall-inducing insects with plants and the dispersal of gall-inducing insects through different biogeographical realms, mainly influenced by the abundance and variety of plant species.The gall-inducing insects, as a highly evolved group, present a stunning diversity, yet share the distinct capacity to redirect developmental programs of plants by generating galls. Propagation of the progeny manifests more prominently in the hemipteroids and Acari, whereas this behavior is not that prominent in the more-derived gall-inducing groups, such as the Cecidomyiidae and Cynipidae, wherein the gall as a facility is better used for the nutrition and development of the immature stages of the inducing insect taxon. The gall-inducing insects are easy to monitor because of the distinct presence of galls, offering an advantage in extending in investigations about the eco-physiology of several other economically important, non-gall-inducing insects.The gall-inducing insects could be termed as ecosystem engineers in the sense that they manipulate plant architecture to create novel habitats. Their impacts on plants will continue to bear scrutiny, especially in regions where gall-inducing insects have been introduced and released from their natural enemies, thus potently threatening various other plants, including the economically relevant ones. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved.
... Gagné and Jaschhof [2017] list 6590 species in 850 genera of living and fossil gall midges in the world. In total, 3113 species in 344 genera are described for the Palaearctic Region with about 1800 species in 270 genera for Europe [Skuhravá, 2006]. Based on modern taxonomical studies, five subfamilies, i.e. ...
The known gall midge fauna of Belarus
includes 73 species. Most of these species were
found by earlier researchers in the period 1881–2012.
During investigations in the Berezinsky Biosphere Nature
Reserve in 2016 11 species of gall midges were
found; 5 of them are first records from Belarus: Giraudiella
inclusa (Frauenfeld, 1862), Rabdophaga repenticola
(Stelter, 1964), Semudobia betulae (Winnertz,
1853), Semudobia skuhravae Roskam, 1977 and Semudobia
tarda Roskam, 1977. Belarus has the lowest
species density: only 19 species have been recorded in
an area of 1000 km2. Zoogeography: 42 gall midge
species (57%) are Euro-Siberian and 30 gall midge
species (41%) are European species. Plant-insect interactions:
gall midges are associated with 58 host plant
species belonging to 25 plant families. 32 species of
host plants are trees and shrubs and 26 species are
herbaceous plants. Populus tremula, hosting 7 gall midge
species, is the host plant with the highest number of
associated species. Economic importance: 7 gall midge
species associated with agricultural plants are potential
pests: Mayetiola destructor (Say, 1817), larvae of which
damage stems of cereals; Contarinia pyrivora (Riley,
1886), larvae of which develop inside fruits of Pyrus
communis; Dasineura pyri (Bouché, 1847), attacking
young developing leaves of Pyrus communis, mainly in
nurseries; Dasineura mali, which is a serious pest of
young apple trees and scions in orchards and in nurseries;
Dasineura tetensi (Rübsaamen, 1891), attacking
young leaves of Ribes nigrum; Dasineura tortrix (F.Löw,
1877), damaging young leaves of various species of
cultivated Prunus; Lasioptera rubi (Schrank, 1803),
damaging stems of cultivated species of the genus Rubus.
Annotated lists of gall midge species and of host
plants associated with gall midges are given.
In situ preservation of fossil insect damage in plant fossils is an excellent tool to study the coevolution of flora and fauna through geological time, but finding both damage and the insect causing that damage in the same specimen is a very rare phenomenon. Galling is a common form of angiosperm leaf damage, which can be regarded as a kind of extended phenotype of the causal insects, essentially the gall midges, but galls usually lack remains of the insects themselves. Here we report the in situ occurrence of a gall midge (Insecta, Diptera, Cecidomyiidae) as well as its pupal exuviae on the abaxial cuticular surface of fossilized leaf cuticle fragments of Fabaceae leaves (cf. Albizia) that also bear galls, recovered from the latest Neogene (Rajdanda Formation, Pliocene) sediments of the Chotonagpur Plateau, Jharkhand, northeastern India. This Pliocene gall midge features well-preserved legs, segmented antenna with distinct and enlarged scape, elongate curved setae, and longer than broad terminal plate of the ovipositor lamellae. The in situ presence of a gall midge on a host fabaceous leaf cuticle indicates the existence of a host-ectoparasite relationship in the ancient warm and humid tropical monsoon-influenced forests of eastern India during the Pliocene. This is the first authentic fossil record of an in situ phytophagous insect of Cecidomyiidae from India, as well as southeast Asia. Although the identification of the recovered phytophagous insect associated with the fossil leaf cuticle is only possible to family level, this find reveals that such plant-insect relationships existed in the Pliocene of eastern India.
Two species of predatory gall midges of the genus Feltiella develop in the colonies of the spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acarina, Trombidiformes: Tetranychidae) in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. A new species Feltiella luboviaesp. n. is described, and the diagnoses of the genus Feltiella and the widespread species F. acarisuga (Vallot), which was found in the northwest of Russia for the first time, are supplemented. Feltiella luboviae sp. n. differs from the closely related F. acarisuga and F. acarivora (Zehntner) in a number of morphological, morphometric, biological, and molecular genetic characteristics. The male genitalia of F. luboviae sp. n. have the following characters: basal protrusions angular, bare, aedeagus narrow, hypoproct swollen laterally, cerci cordiform, flagellomeres with pyriform distal node and whorls of long circumfilar sensorial loops, 2nd segment of hind tarsus 6.0–8.2 times as long as 1st and much longer than 3rd–5th tarsomeres combined. The embryonic development of F. luboviae sp. n. lasts 3.9 ± 0.12 days, the larval development lasts 9.3 ± 0.11 days, the pupal development lasts 5.9 ± 0.14 days, and the adult life span is 3.6 ± 0.13 days. The larvae and pupae of F. luboviae sp. n. develop faster than those of F. acarisuga. The COI nucleotide sequence of F. luboviae sp. n. had a 89% match with that of F. acarisuga and a 91% match with that of F. acarivora. The diagnosis of the genus Feltiella is supplemented by morphometric indices. Data on the rearing conditions for the laboratory population of F. luboviae sp. n. and evaluation of its effectiveness in protected ground as compared to F. acarisuga are given.
The Nearctic species of subfamily Porricondylinae are revised, based mainly on an examination of the Felt types. The history and the classification of the tribes and genera here recognized as constituting this subfamily are reviewed, and the subfamily is redescribed to include these groups. The systematic position of every described Nearctic species within this subfamily is reviewed, and most of the species are redescribed. Porricondyla varians is described as new. Keys are included to tribes, genera, and species. The subfamily is divided into 8 tribes, one of which, the Heteropezini, contains genera which have hitherto been referred to other subfamilies. These tribes are further divided into 27 genera (Colpadia is considered not to occur in the Nearctic) of which PSEUDOCAMPTOMYIA, NEOSYNEPIDOSIS, ISOCOLPODIA, PARACOLPODIA, and BASICONDYLA are described as new. Eight genera previously recognized only in Europe have been added to the Nearctic lists, and 2 previous synonyms (Hormosomyia and Rübsaamenia) have been maintained. These genera include 85 species; there are in addition 2 species which are not referred to any genus, to make a total of 87 valid species for the subfamily. In this revision, 25 new synonyms are established between Nearctic species, 2 Nearctic species are synonymized under a European species, 1 European species is synonymized under a Nearctic species, several tentative synonyms are suggested, and 44 new combinations are established.