Morphological features and molecular phylogeny of Placochela Rübsaamen (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) with implications for taxonomy and host specificity

Abstract

Morphological studies, combined with phylogenetic analysis based on partial nucleotide sequencing of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase subunit I region, were used to elucidate the taxonomic status of the genus Placochela Rübsaamen within the tribe Asphondyliini and of two included species. Placochela is confirmed as a distinct genus, separated from Schizomyia Kieffer morphologically and phylogenetically, but its two European species are not separable and are therefore synonymized. Illustrated descriptions of adults and larvae of Placochela nigripes (Low) on two of its known hosts, Sambucus nigra Linnaeus and Ligustrum vulgare Linnaeus, are provided. Polyphagy has been recorded in the subtribe Asphondyliina, but this is the first record of such polyphagy in the subtribe Schizomyiina. © 2005 The Entomological Society of Japan.