Species diversity of Fergusonina Malloch gall flies (Diptera: Fergusoninidae) forming leaf bud galls on snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora Sieb. ex Spreng. complex), with a description of a new species from Tasmania

Abstract

A new species of Fergusonina (Diptera: Fergusoninidae) fly is described from terminal leaf bud galls (TLBGs) from the Eucalyptus pauciflora Sieb. ex Spreng. (snow gum) species complex from Australia. Fergusonina tasmaniensis Nelson sp.n. is the first species from the genus Fergusonina to be described from Tasmania and the fourth from this host complex. Fergusonina tasmaniensis sp.n. can be distinguished from the other snow gum Fergusonina species by differences in adult size, markings on the mesonotum and the male genitalia, and from all other described Fergusonina by host specificity and differences in adult colouration, setation, genitalia and the morphology of the larval dorsal shield. In a molecular phylogeny of the snow gum-inhabiting Fergusonina species, F. tasmaniensis sp.n. was resolved as monophyletic, and sister (mean distance = 3.82%) to a clade comprising F. daviesae Nelson and Yeates and F. omlandi Nelson and Yeates (mean interspecific distance = 2.48%).