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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » "Acalyptratae" » Opomyzoidea » Leaf Miner Flies (Agromyzidae) » Ophiomyiinae » Melanagromyza » Melanagromyza verbenivora
Photo#1419653
Stem girdler, hoary vervain - Melanagromyza verbenivora
Copyright © 2017 John van der Linden

Stem girdler, hoary vervain - Melanagromyza verbenivora
Beard Century Farm, Winneshiek County, Iowa, USA
July 14, 2017
July 2017 Hoary vervain, Verbena stricta, wilted shoots with shriveled leaves, and some distortion of the stem where the wilting starts. Closer inspection reveals the stem has been girdled from the inside in a spiraling pattern (visible in the above image, on the section of stem between the shoots that are emerging from the leaf axils). Several stems found with similar damage.

07/14/17 Stem shown in this series collected and photographed, then cut open, and photographed some more; puparium inside.

07/27/17 Adult

Sometimes this fly tunnels in the flowering spike

Images of this individual: tag all
Stem girdler, hoary vervain - Melanagromyza verbenivora Stem girdler, hoary vervain - Melanagromyza verbenivora Stem girdler, hoary vervain - Melanagromyza verbenivora Stem girdler, hoary vervain - Melanagromyza verbenivora Stem girdler, hoary vervain - Melanagromyza verbenivora Stem girdler, hoary vervain - Melanagromyza verbenivora Stem girdler, hoary vervain - Melanagromyza verbenivora
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Contributed by John van der Linden on 8 August, 2017 - 10:39am
Last updated 19 June, 2021 - 2:57pm

Moved
Moved from Melanagromyza.
… Charley Eiseman, 10 December, 2019 - 2:05pm login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from Leaf Miner Flies.
… Charley Eiseman, 12 August, 2017 - 6:12pm login or register to post comments

From the USDA manual
The Manual of the Agromyzidae (Diptera) of the United States lists two stem borers of plants in the Verbenaceae:

(1) Melanagromyza riparella
"Host/Early Stages. Phyla nodiflora, probably P. lanceolata. Larva internal stem borer; puparium entirely white or faintly reddish; anal segments conspicuously curving ventrally (fig. 74); posterior spiracular processes separated by own diameter, each with ring of 9 well-defined bulbs, without trace of central horn or scar. Distribution. Florida, Illinois, Texas (new record)."

(2) Melanagromyza sp. in Verbena scabra. No details given, and this species was apparently not described in this publication.

The manual also lists Ophiomyia lippiae as a possible stem miner:
"Host/Early Stages. Phyla nodiflora. Larva reported as seed feeder but possibly a stem miner, pupating in upper part of stem; puparium pale, yellowish white, posterior spiracles on short, raised stalks, each process with 5 bulbs (fig. 177). Distribution. Florida; Bahamas."
… John van der Linden, 8 August, 2017 - 12:42pm login or register to post comments

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