Notes on New Host plant Records and Parasites of Liriomyza sorosis in Florida (Diptera: Agromyzidae)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to record some new host plant records of Liriomyza sorosis (Williston). L. sorosis was not known to be polyphagous until recently. Spencer (1963) established the following clarification, (1959: 410) largely using color as a differentiating characteristic and understandably misled by variations in the arrangements of dorsocentrals in the limited material at his disposal, linked sorosis with the species feeding commonly in the United States on Plantago spp., as distinct from marginalis bred from Paspalum. have now been able to examine the genitalia of a specimen bred from plantago, S. Antonio, Texas, 29. iii. 1908 in the U.S.N.M. (C. R. Jones). These agree in all respects with those of the four specimens mentioned above and I therefore synonymize marginalis with sororsis. Additional information concerning L. sorosis was cited by Spencer (1964). A further species occurring on both Monocotyledones and Dicotyledones is Liriomyza sorosis (Williston), which has recently been bred in Florida by Mr. Carl Stegmaier from a wide range of Dicotyledones and also from several genera of Gramineae. I mentioned earlier how Frick had been misled into assuming two species were involved here, based on the assumption that a single species could not occur on such unusual combination of hosts. Williston (1896) described L. sorosis as Agromyza sorosis, and Malloch (1913) described the species as Agromyza melampyga var. marginalis. Frick (1952) designated A. m. var. marginalis as Liriomyza marginalis, and later (1959) referred to Agromyza sorosis Williston as Liriomyza. Spencer (1963) synonymized Liriomyza marginalis (Malloch) with Liriomyza sorosis. Frick (1959) recorded the known host plants of L. sorosis as Plantago major L., P. media L., and possibly other species of Plantago. Frick recorded the host plant of L. marginalis as Paspalum dilatatum Poir. He cited the distribution from the following places: St. Vincent, British West Indies, South Dakota, lllinois, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and Texas. Spencer (1963) recorded the distribution of L. sorosis from British Guiana, Venezuela, Brazil, and Jamaica; Spencer cited rearing L. sorosis from leaf mines on Gramineae in Jamaica and Brazil. He noted L. sorosis as pupating in the leaf mine with the black ant--rior spiracles projecting through the epidermis of the leaf. The author began his study of the host plant range of L. sorosis in the greater Miami area of peninsular Florida during 1982. The host plant infestations included the various uncultivated grasses and some infestations in the Dicotyledones.