Descriptions of two new species of the genus Lasioptera (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) that infest tomato in the Mediterranean Region and Hokkaido, Japan

Abstract

Two new species, Lasioptera tomaticola Yukawa and Harris from the Mediterranean Region and Lasioptera yoichiensis Yukawa and Kim from Japan (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) are described. They damage tomato, Solanum lycopersicum Linnaeus (Solanaceae: South American origin), respectively, in the Mediterranean Region (Greece, Romania and Turkey) and Japan (Hokkaido). Lasioptera tomaticola was found also to infest cucumber, Cucumis sativus Linnaeus (Cucurbitaceae: Asian origin) in the Mediterranean Region. Morphological characters and genetic data indicated that the two species were distinct. They were also morphologically different from Lasioptera kallstroemia Felt and Lasioptera solani (Felt) that occur on Solanum spp. (Solanaceae) in North America, Lasioptera falcata Felt on unidentified species of Cucurbitaceae in India and the Philippines, Lasioptera toombii Grover on Coccinia grandis (Cucurbitaceae) in India, and Lasioptera sp. on three genera of Cucurbitaceae in Japan. We could not determine whether L. tomaticola is a species of Palaearctic origin, while we considered that L. yoichiensis was accidentally introduced from overseas to Yoichi, Hokkaido, Japan.