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Mystery Fly - Neostenoptera appalachiensis

Mystery Fly - Neostenoptera appalachiensis
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Sevier County, Tennessee, USA
July 15, 2006
Possibly undescribed Cecidomyiidae. I have a few specimens for anyone interested in doing some formal work.

The flies were emergent from decay class II wood (still structurally sound, but loss of bark, some staining from fungi) that was between 2 and 10 inches in diameter. We collected it a little ways down a Quite Walkway just past Sugarlands in April (Sample SN34A). This fly is from the 24 June - 15 July sample, so apparently they were eggs or larvae in April.

Images of this individual: tag all
Mystery Fly - Neostenoptera appalachiensis Mystery Fly - Neostenoptera appalachiensis

Moved
Moved from Winnertziinae.

Neostenoptera appalachiensis Plakidas and Ferro!!!
Just described!

Would never have happened if not for Bugguide!

Plakidas, J. D., and M. L. Ferro. 2016. A new species of Neostenoptera (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae: Winnertziinae)
from eastern North America. Insecta Mundi 0510: 1–9.

 
Congratulations!
I have been following the progress on this little critter since it was first submitted. My compliments to all!

Heteropezinae, female
John, what we have here is a female Heteropezinae, under Gagne & Jaschhof its Heteropezini (Winnertiinae). There are 10 flagellomneres, 4-tarsomeres and no wing veination. If you send me material I can slide mount and illustrate it and send out for reviews to see what exactly we have. As I look at this specimen it appears to be a new species. Its not Leptosyna, Heteropeza, Miastor, or Brittenia all of which I have in my collection. So that's a start for comparison.

 
Specimens
All my specimens are at Louisiana State Arthropod Museum in Baton Rouge. I'm planning on visiting in January or February and will be happy to send you some specimens if you like.

Moved
Moved from Gall Midges and Wood Midges.

It's not a species known to Pritchard in 1960, nor was it considered in the key in Manual of Nearctic Diptera.

Moved

Moved
Moved from Flies.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

ID?
How did you determine this as Cecidomyiidae? Usually that is done by wing veins, which are basically nonexistent here. Taxonomists may also consider form of thoracic sclerites, but I wouldn't know where to begin even if I could see them. Manual of Nearctic Diptera has only one species with four tarsomeres, and this is not it (Miastor metroloas looks almost normal).

 
Long ago
Long ago and far away I bugged Greg Courtney and Peter Cranston about this. Cranston actually looked at the fly while he was visiting LSAM and after a while we got it to Cecidomyiidae, but couldn't take it further.

(Also, sorry, I meant to upload this under my account (Mike Ferro) not LSAM's account. But since it's already in the system I'll leave it here.)

 
I can't confirm Cecidomyiidae
without seeing the presence/ absence/ number of ocelli, and the number of palpomeres.

If it is Cecidomyiidae, you're still a little out of luck. Most cecids need the host plant for positive identification, so IDing ones that come from dead wood is complicated. I only know of two cecid taxonomists, Ray Gagne is retired and I don't know how active he is. Netta Dorchin in israel is another (ndorchin _at_ post.tau.ac.il) but she works on gall inducing ones, I don't know how much interest she will have in this one.

This is definitely a wacky looking creature, but even if it's described it will be hard to get a determination. Maybe you should just describe it and see what the reviewers say (mostly joking)

 
Heteropezula?
Among known genera of Cecidomyiidae, four tarsomeres and narrow wing without R5 mean Heteropezula. The wing of H. tenuis has a long fringe like this fly.

The reference, which I have not seen, is

Wyatt, I. J. 1967. Pupal paedogenesis in the Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) 3 -- A reclassification of the Heteropezini. Transactions of the Roytal Entomological Society of London 119(3):71-98.

Jaschhoff did not discuss the genus beyond basic differentiation from Miastor because it did not occur in the area he studied.

 
Mathias Jaschhof might know
Reduced forms probably belong in the Heteropezini, which were recently reviewed:

Jaschhof, M. 2013. Pp. 46-360. In Jaschhof, M. and C. Jaschhof. The Porricondylinae (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) of Sweden, with notes on extralimital species. Studia Dipterologica Supplement 20:1-392.

Weird
Looks like Nymphomyiidae but with long antennae.