Two new species of Asphondylia Loew, 1850 (Diptera, Cecidomyiidae) on Asteraceae from Brazil

Abstract Two new species of Asphondylia inducing galls on Asteraceae are described, A. gaucha from the state of Rio Grande do Sul and A. mineira from the state of Minas Gerais. Their host plants are Vernonanthura discolor (Sprengel) H. Rob., and V. polyanthes (Sprengel) Vega & Dematteis, respectively, both native to Brazil. Illustrations of relevant morphological characters are provided. The new species are compared with congeneric Neotropical species. The types are deposited in the Entomological Collection of the Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.

Approximately 50 species of Asphondylia induce galls on Asteraceae, 19 of them in the Neotropical Region and seven in Brazil (Table 1). In the world, there is only one described species of Asphondylia associated with the genus Vernonanthura, Asphondylia ajallai Möhn, 1959 from El Salvador.
In this paper, two new species of Asphondylia which induce stem galls on Asteraceae are described: A. gaucha and A. mineira, the former induces complex galls on Vernonanthura discolor (Sprengel) H. Rob. and the latter simple galls on Vernonanthura polyanthes (Sprengel) Vega & Dematteis, both host plants are native to Brazil. The complex galls on Vernonanthura discolor were previously reported by Mendonça et al., 2014, but the gall-inducing species was not identified in that publication.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Galls on Vernonanthura discolor, and V. polyanthes were collected in different localities of Brazil: the former in Floresta Nacional de São Francisco de Paula (29°25′22″S; 50°23′11″W) in the municipality of São Francisco de Paula, state of Rio Grande do Sul, by M. Mendonça and the latter in Serra Negra do Funil, municipality of Rio Preto (22°05′S, 43°49′W), state of Minas Gerais by B. Mascarenhas.
Field work was performed on different dates (see "Material Examined"). Specimens were reared in the laboratory and sent in micro vials with 70% ethanol to VCM for identification. All material was prepared and mounted on microscope slides following the methods outlined in Gagné (1994). The genus was identified using the key of Gagné (1994), and the new species were proposed after comparison with literature data (host plants, gall morphology and cecidomyiid descriptions). All specimens were deposited in the Entomological Collection of the Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (MNRJ).
Morphological studies and drawings were made with the aid of an optical microscope coupled with a photographic camera and drawing tube. Measurements were made according to Maia & Oliveira, 2021. All drawings were edited using Corel DRAW®. Adult morphological terminology follows Cumming & Wood (2009) and larval and pupal stages follows Gagné (1989).
The new species are compared to each other and to Asphondylia ajallai, the only known congeneric species that induces galls on the same host genus.
Remarks: Asphondylia gaucha and A. mineira are the only two described species of Asphondylia associated with the genus Vernonanthura in Brazil. These species differ from each other mainly in the length of the female 1 st and 2 nd flagellomeres (longer in A. mineira than those of A. gaucha), the number of male frontal setae (26-32 in A. gaucha and 10 in A. mineira), shape of male hypoproct (deeply bilobed in A. gaucha and slightly bilobed in Figure 9. Asphondylia spp.: (A) A. mineira, sp. nov., prothoracic spatula and associated papillae, ventral view, (B-C) A. ajallai Möhn, 1959(redrawn from Möhn, 1959, original drawings without scale): (B) Hind leg, tarsal claw and empodium, lateral view, (C) prothoracic spatula and associated papillae, ventral view. Pap. Avulsos Zool., 2023;v.63: e202363024 11/12 A. mineira), ratio between 6 th and 7 th sternite length in females (1.75-1.90× in A. gaucha and 2.2-2.5× in A. mineira), shape of antennal horns in pupae (more pointed apically in gaucha than in A. mineira), length of prothoracic spiracle (about 2 times longer in A. mineira than in A. gaucha), and number of dorsal spines in the posterior row of 2 nd abdominal segment (more numerous in A. gaucha than in A. mineira). Möhn, 1959 described Asphondylia ajallai from El Salvador. This species induces bud galls on Lepidaploa canescens (Kunth) H. Rob. (recorded as Vernonia canescens Kunth.), Vernonanthura patens (Kunth) H. Rob. (recorded as Vernonia patens Kunth.) and Vernonia sp. (Asteraceae). It is known from the female and larva. Only females of Asphondylia gaucha and A. ajallai can be compared to each other. They differ from it mainly in the length of empodium (longer in A. gaucha than in A. ajallai) and shape of tarsal claws (more curve in A. gaucha than in A. ajallai) (Fig. 9B). Larvae and females of Asphondylia mineira can be compared with those of A. ajallai. The spatula of A. mineira has longer mesal teeth and wider anchor base than in A. ajallai (Fig. 9C). Furthermore, A. mineira has three lateral papillae on each side of the spatula, while A. ajallai has four (Fig. 9C). Females of both species have empodia subequal in length. Nevertheless, the tarsal claws of A. mineira are more curve than those of A. ajallai. The first author is grateful to Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) for financial support (number process: 210.300/2021); the second author to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for a productivity grant (number process: PQ 311298/2019-2).