New species of Lopesia ( Diptera , Cecidomyiidae ) associated with Eichhornia azurea ( Pontederiaceae ) from Brazil

A new species of gall midge, Lopesia eichhorniae sp. nov. (Cecidomyiidae, Diptera), associated with rhizomes of Eichhornia azurea (Sw.) Kunth (Pontederiaceae) is described. This is the first record of Lopesia galls in this species of macrophyte, quite common in natural and artificial lakes in Southeast Brazil. Illustrations of the adults (male and female), pupa, larva, and gall of the new species are presented.


ABSTRACT.
A new species of gall midge, Lopesia eichhorniae sp.nov.(Cecidomyiidae, Diptera), associated with rhizomes of Eichhornia azurea (Sw.)Kunth (Pontederiaceae) is described.This is the first record of Lopesia galls in this species of macrophyte, quite common in natural and artificial lakes in Southeast Brazil.Illustrations of the adults (male and female), pupa, larva, and gall of the new species are presented.
Eichhornia azurea (Sw.)Kunth (Pontederiaceae) is a permanent floating species, perennial, rhizomatous, known popularly as water hyacinth or camalote (Pott & Pott, 2000).During all or part of their life cycles, a significant number of terrestrial and aquatic insects use this macrophyte as habitats for reproduction, for protection against predators, and as food resources (trivinho-Strixino et al., 2000).The species is distributed in natural and artificial reservoirs from South of the United States to Argentina, and in all regions and ecosystems of Brazil (AmArAl, 2014).
The galls induced by Lopesia species has various shapes, since leaf hairy spherical until swollen stem.They occur chiefly on species of Fabaceae, Clusiaceae, and Burseraceae families, also inducing galls in few species of Nyctaginaceae, Melastomataceae, Erythroxylaceae, Chrysobalanaceae, Sapotaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Rosaceae, and Myrtaceae.This is the first report of Lopesia galls in Pontederiaceae and in submersible rhizomes of Eichhornia azurea.The gall was already referred in Peláez-rodríGuez et al. (2003) without formal description of the gall maker.In this paper, illustrations of the new species and from the galls are presented, as well as comments about its systematic position in genus.
Gall (Fig. 17).Swollen rhizome of E. azurea (Pontederiaceae).Pupation occurs in gall.The oviposition and larval development cause the enlargement of the infected area of rhizome and a small change of natural color (Fig. 17).The oviposition in the rhizome occurs in the dry period (June to September).
Etymology.The name eichhorniae refers to the generic name of the host plant.