Dizygomyza hirtae

Family

Subfamily

Genus

Subgenus

Species

Dizygomyza hirtae Nowakowski, 1967

Mine

A long, linear mine, in Carex hirta and other Carex spp., with pupariation occurring at the end of the mine in the leaf sheaf or, infrequently, near the base of the leaf. Nowakowski (1973) illustrates the larval mine.

Host Plants

• Carex

Confusion Species

Other Cerodontha spp.

Recording Grade

5

National Status

Unknown.

Puparium

Anterior spiracles each with 10-14 slightly elongated, diverging bulbs arranged in a single row. Three slightly curved bulbs on posterior spiracles protrude noticeably from their base. Puparium flattened, 2½ – 3½ mm long, whitish-yellow in summer generation, over-wintering puparia being reddish-brown.

Adult

Agreeing closely with C. (D.) luctuosa on external characters.
Head: third antennal segment greatly enlarged in male, possessing thick, white pubescence which is a little shorter than basal width of arista; usually two ors and two ori; lunule broad, lower than semicircle.
Mesonotum: 3+1 dc; acr in 5-6 irregular rows; prescutellar setae almost twice as long as acr.
Colour: frons dark brown, with orbits grey or somewhat darker, matt; lunule silvery-grey; antennae black; mesonotum and scutellum blackish-grey; legs all black, with only fore-knee narrowly yellow, fore-tibiae and all tarsi paler, brownish; anterior tergites narrowly yellow bordered, with front tergites yellow laterally [although may be darker, almost completely black].
Wing: 2.3-3 mm, base yellow; squamae yellowish-grey, margin and fringe yellow.
Male genitalia: epandrium with distinct but small caudal projection. Surstylar lobe with seven long, thick spines. Tubular section of distiphallus with distal arch somewhat longer and higher than proximal arch. Hypophallus long, curved and pointing posteriorly [not as perpendicular as depicted by Papp & Černý]. Tubular part of distiphallus quite different to that of C. (D.) bimaculata and C. (D.) spinata, whilst although C. (D.) luctuosa possesses rather similar distiphallus, the mesophallus and hypophallus are noticeably different to that of C. (D.) hirtae.