A New Species of Earomyia Zetterstedt (Diptera: Lonchaeidae) and its Associates in Stems of False Hellebore (Melanthiaceae: Veratrum viride Aiton) in Southern New England, USA

Eiseman, Charles S; MacGowan, Iain

A New Species of Earomyia Zetterstedt (Diptera: Lonchaeidae) and its Associates in Stems of False Hellebore (Melanthiaceae: Veratrum viride Aiton) in Southern New England, USA

Resource type

Journal article

Creator (person)

Eiseman, Charles S

MacGowan, Iain

ORCID

Date published

April 1, 2025

Abstract

Earomyia veratri, new species (Diptera: Lonchaeidae) is described from specimens reared from false hellebore (Melanthiaceae: Veratrum viride Aiton) in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The larvae feed in the flowering stems of the host plant, overwintering as pupae either in the stem or in soil. In addition to hymenopteran parasitoids (Ichneumonidae: Phygadeuon sp.) that emerged from the puparia, numerous other flies emerged from stems damaged by E. veratri larvae, including Culicoides sanguisuga (Coquillett) and Dasyhelea oppressa Thomsen (Ceratopogonidae), Elachiptera nigriceps (Loew) and Tricimba trisulcata (Adams) (Chloropidae), Threticus bicolor (Banks) (Psychodidae), and Bradysia impatiens (Johannsen) (Sciaridae).