Pegomya meridiana
- Dataset
- Taxonomic revision of the Pegomya meridiana species group (Diptera: Anthomyiidae) including natural enemies of invasive Hypericum spp. (Clusiaceae)
- Rank
- SPECIES
Classification
- kingdom
- Animalia
- phylum
- Arthropoda
- class
- Insecta
- order
- Diptera
- family
- Anthomyiidae
- genus
- Pegomya
- species
- Pegomya meridiana
description
Oviscapt distally laterally compressed, forming a pointed cutting edge by the apically closely aligned epiproct and cerci (e. g., Figs. 10, 20, 30). A compressed oviscapt is also seen in the SE Palaearctic and N Oriental Pegomya chinensis species group (e. g., Suwa 2000), but those species are much larger and have the cutting edge formed alone by the projecting apices of the cerci. Larval development in the floral parts or (rather) seed-capsules of Hypericum spp. has only been confirmed for one species (P. meridiana), but plausibly applies to other members of the P. meridiana species group. This is supported by field observations suggesting that the shrub Hypericum canariense is a larval host plant of the likewise Canarian endemic anthomyiid P. canariensis (see below). Further, a sister-group relationship between P. provecta and P. canariensis is supported by: spiracles VII absent in both males (Fig. 15) and females (Figs. 22, 31). Again, this appears to be a unique character state not previously reported from the Anthomyiidae. Pegomya meridiana has retained the anthomyiid standard configuration with spiracles VII in the asymmetrical sclerites of the male pregenital segments VII + VIII (Figs. 3, 4) and in tergite VI of the female (Fig. 9).