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Photo#1983501
Gallmaker, Euphorbia - Dasineura

Gallmaker, Euphorbia - Dasineura
Quarry Hill Prairie, Winneshiek County, Iowa, USA
June 8, 2021
Blackened shoot tip of flowering spurge, Euphorbia corollata, with more than fifty gall midge larvae packed inside

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Gallmaker, Euphorbia - Dasineura Gallmaker, Euphorbia - Dasineura Gallmaker, Euphorbia - Dasineura

Moved

Seems like a pretty close match
to the drawing of Dasineura sp. near capitigena, Figure 137 in Gagné's The Plant-Feeding Gall Midges of North America, p. 92. However, that species is recorded on Euphorbia esula only in Gagné's book, and Pemberton and Johnson (1985) note the following:

"D. capitigena was studied as a biological control candidate and demonstrated to be host specific to the genus Euphorbia by Pasquale Pecora of the USDA's Rome Biological Control of Weeds Laboratory (Pecora 1983). This research allowed us to bring the midge into our quarantine laboratory for testing against 12 representative native Euphorbia species. Its predicted host range was found to be similar to that of Aphthona flava, in that it is restricted to subgenus Esula species." [emphasis added]

Flowering spurge is not in the subgenus Esula.

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References:
Euphorbia subgroups | iNaturalist
Pemberton, R.W. and G. Johnson. 1985. Two new insects (Dasineura capitigena and Aphthona flava) for leafy spurge control in United States. 1985 Leafy Spurge Symposium. Bozeman, MT. July 17-18, 1985. pp. 29-32.
Gagné, R.J. 1989. The plant-feeding gall midges of North America. Cornell University Press: Ithaca, New York.

 
Gagné weighs in
"These are Dasineura sp. but the galls are not the same as Spurgia capitigena and relatives, besides which E. corollata is a native. Of course, I would need adults to be 100% certain."
--Ray Gagné, via email after examining larvae, autumn 2021

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