New gall midge taxa (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) from Australian Chenopodiaceae

Abstract  Five new species and a new genus of gall midge are described from flower galls on native chenopod plants in Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Asphondylia vesicaria sp. n. induces galls on Atriplex vesicaria ; A. mcneilli sp. n. on Sclerolaena diacantha ; and A. tonsura sp. n. on Enchylaena tomentosa . Infested flowers develop into galls and produce no seeds. DNA analysis of part of the cytochrome-c oxidase subunit I mitochondrial gene supported the morphological and biological differences between each of the new species and the previously described A. floriformis (Veenstra-Quah & Kolesik) and A. sarcocorniae (Veenstra-Quah & Kolesik) that induce galls on leaves and branches, respectively, of Sarcocornia quinqueflora (Chenopodiaceae) in Australian salt marshes. A new genus, Dactylasioptera gen. n. and two new species of Lasiopterini, D. adentata sp. n. and D. dentata sp. n. are described – both were reared from galls of A. mcneilli and A. tonsura .