Occurrence of Dasineura oxycoccana(Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) infesting cultivated blueberry in Japan

Abstract

In July 2015, an unidentified gall midge(Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) infesting new leaves of blueberry, Vaccinium spp. was found in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. Morphological examinations of adults and larvae revealed that the gall midge belongs to the genus Dasineura and is very similar to the blueberry gall midge Dasineura oxycoccana(Johnson), which is native to North America and associated with blueberry. In order to confirm whether or not the species of Dasineura on cultivated blueberry is identical to D. oxycoccana, a partial region of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase subunit (I COI) (676 bp) gene was sequenced for several individuals collected from Gunma. As a result, the sequence was identical to an individual of D. oxycoccana in the database. Based on the morphological examinations and molecular analysis, we identify the gall midge infesting blueberry in Gunma as D. oxycoccana. This is the first report of D. oxycoccana in Japan.