Life History Patterns and Host Ranges of the Genus Asphondylia (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae)

Abstract

Based on ecological, morphological, distributional, and molecular data, the Japanese Asphondylia gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) were classified into the following five groups in terms of life history patterns and host ranges: (1) univoltine and monophagous or oligophagous species; (11) bivoltine species, which can complete their annual life cycle on a single host plant species by alternating between different host organs; (111) multivoltine species on one organ of a single host plant; (IV) multivoltine species, which alternate between different host plants seasonally to complete their annual life cycle; (V) univoltine and oligophagous species but partly bi- or multivoltine by utilizing occasional alternate hosts. Asphondylia species seem to be less constrained by the phenology of their host plants than other leaf gallers and to have flexible potential for adaptation of their life history strategy to the habitat and life style of their host plants. The potential may be derived from strong flight ability in search for suitable plants and the existence of a fungal symbiont on whose hyphae the larvae feed within galls. The categorization of life history patterns could contribute to future evolutionary studies of Asphondylia life histories when phylogenetic relationships among the species are analyzed.