Liriomyza taurica

Family

Subfamily

Genus

Species

Liriomyza taurica Zlobin, 2003

Mine

Unknown.

Host Plants

• Unknown

Confusion Species

N/A.

Recording Grade

*

National Status

Unknown.

Puparium

Unknown.

Adult

A relatively small species, with a wing length of <2mm.
Head: frons 1.9 times width of the eye, with orbits narrowly projecting above the eye in profile; 2 equal reclinate ors, 2 equal, long ori, with the orbital setulae short, sparse and reclinate; third antennal segment is small, rounded with a tuft of short but distinct pubescence present at the upper corner.
Mesonotum: deep black, distinctly shining with obvious yellow patches at hind corners with ipa seta on yellow ground, with 3+1 dc and acr in 4-5 irregular rows, extending to first dc; mesopleuron black in lower front corner, extending down lower margin but not reaching upper and hind margins, with all mesopleural bristles on yellow ground.
Colour: frons, orbits, antenna and palp bright yellow, with the hind margin of eye black, both vt on dark background but vti at margin of yellow; legs mostly dark, with all knees yellow for a distance greater than the width of femora (long series in the collection of M. von Tschirnhaus: 1/4 to 1/3 length of femur); tibiae narrowly yellowish basally, largely black, with tarsi somewhat paler, dark-brownish; wing hyaline, veins brown, hind cross-vein oblique and sometimes absent in specimens of the Tschirnhaus collection); squamae yellow with margin and fringe blackish. Abdomen black with tergites broad yellow laterally.
Male genitalia: epandrium rounded in profile, covered with long, sparse bristles on upper half only. Surstylus not developed, cercus very large and broad. Epandrium with extremely long epandrial process on each side, which possesses a dark, narrow, rectangular-shaped, projection on its ventral margin, much different to other Palaearctic species in the flaveola-group. Male genitalia; subepandrial sclerite species-specific, much higher than broad, dorsal arms narrow, parallel in their basal half, in apical half gently divergent, ventral arms very short rounded, subapically with a pair of long setae. Mesophallus curving down with bulb of sperm duct long. Hypophallus predominantly membranous. Distiphallus with a genicular basal part and a broader apical part composed of a pair of rounded lobes and a subdivided sagittal lobe. Ejaculatory apodeme extremely large with a black melanised dorso-ventrally flattened bulb, a sclerotized first section of the Ductus ejaculatorius and a large rounded black blade. In most instances, female Liriomyza are extremely difficult to determine, however L. taurica is the only species in the flaveola-group (and a rare exception in Liriomyza worldwide) to possess a distinctly laterally compressed oviscape, detected by von Tschirnhaus who treated this species 1981 under the nomen nudum “L. poacearum sp. n.”. In his collection females outnumber males which could hypothesise parthenogenesis.