New and confirmed records of fruit flies (Diptera, Tephritidae) from Italy.

BACKGROUND: Prior to this study, 141 species of Tephritidae were known to occur in Italy. NEW INFORMATION: Italian records of nine species of the family Tephritidae (Diptera) are provided. Five species, Eurasimonastigma (Loew, 1840), Noeetabisetosa Merz, 1992, Campiglossadoronici (Loew, 1856), Xyphosialaticauda (Meigen, 1826) and Rhagoletisberberidis Jermy, 1961 are recorded from Italy for the first time, whereas four species, Inuromaesamaura (Frauenfeld, 1857), Urophoracuspidata (Meigen, 1826), Tephritisconyzifoliae Merz, 1992 and T.mutabilis Merz, 1992, previously recorded in the Fauna Europaea database without reference to collection material, are confirmed and supplemented with host plant data and other collection data. Luca Mazzon, Daniel Whitmore, Pierfilippo Cerretti, Valery A. Korneyev.

Introduction

is one of the largest families of cyclorrhaphous , with almost 5,000 named species predominantly found in the tropics (A. Norrbom, pers. comm.). The family is also referred to as “fruit flies”, as it contains many species that are specialised feeders on fleshy fruit. The tropical regions are true hotspots of tephritid diversity, including hundreds of fruit-eating species, but also species with saprophagous larvae feeding under the bark of fallen trees or in bamboo culms (Korneyev 1999, Dohm et al. 2014). On the other hand, most Palaearctic species are flower and seed feeders, with larvae that are borers in the flower heads, stems and rhizomes of , and . The European fauna is represented by at least 265 species belonging to three subfamilies: , and (Merz and Korneyev 2011, V. Korneyev, unpublished data). Some of the fruit-eating species are widespread economic pests which cause serious damage to fruit crops and stored fruit. The olive fly, (Rossi, 1794) and the medfly, (Wiedemann, 1817), as well as many members of the genera Loew, 1862 and Costa, 1854, are well-known examples.

Starting from Rondani (Rondani 1856, Rondani 1870), who listed 109 nominal species known from Italy and following numerous nomenclatural changes, the number of Italian fruit fly species reached 133 species according to Belcari et al. (1995). Later, Merz and Korneyev (2011) increased this number to 141 species, but did not provide occurrence data for species added to the Italian list. These were: (Frauenfeld, 1857), Loew, 1862, (Meigen, 1826), Merz, 1992, Hering, 1937, Merz, 1992, White & Marquardt, 1989, Merz, 1990, Hering, 1958 and (Loew, 1862), all based on collection material identified by Bernhard Merz, but not formally published.

Other relatively recent contributions to the Italian tephritid fauna, including first Italian records, were made by Merz (2002) for (Loew, 1869) and Rivosecchi (2008) for (Loew, 1846). Gentilini et al. (2006) described two fossil species from the Upper Miocene (Messinian) of Monte Castellaro. Seljak (2013) recorded (Loew), a non-native, North American species considered beneficial as a biological control agent of the invasive plant L. (), from Italy and Slovenia for the first time. Recently, Nugnes et al. (2018) provided the first Italian records of the invasive fruit pest species (Hendel, 1912) from the Region of Campania.

In this paper, we record five tephritid species for Italy for the first time and confirm the occurrence in the country of four additional species, based on detailed collection data and host plant information obtained during research on symbiotic bacteria of over 30 fruit fly species. The analysis revealed the presence of hereditary symbiotic bacteria in (Rossi, 1790) (Capuzzo et al. 2005) and in all studied species of the tribe and the genus Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830. In other tribes (e.g., , and ), despite the common trait of larvae developing in flower heads, evolution does not seem to have occurred for the establishment of a hereditary bacterial interaction (Mazzon et al. 2008, Mazzon et al. 2010, Mazzon et al. 2011).

Materials and methods

The flies were collected in Italy by the first author, reared from mature larvae and pupae collected together with infested flower heads. Flower heads were detached from their stems and placed in net bags at room temperature to allow the insects to complete their development. An in-field pre-screening of positive samples involved sectioning of the inflorescences and inspection for the presence of larvae or pupae. Adults of (Loew, 1840) were collected with a mouth aspirator while resting on their host plant.

The species were identified using the keys of White (1988) and Merz (1994). The nomenclature follows Norrbom et al. (1999). Host plants were determined using the Italian botanical keys in Pignatti (1982); when necessary, identifications were confirmed by a specialist.

All voucher specimens (Figs 1, 2) are deposited in the fruit fly collection of the Laboratory of Entomology of the Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment, University of Padua, Italy (UPI).

Taxon treatments

F0AC0B9E-DFDA-5970-A4FC-7A485828C29F

Type status:Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: L. Mazzon; individualCount: 3; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; preparations: dry; Taxon: scientificName: ; higherClassification: Subfamily ; genus: ; specificEpithet: ; scientificNameAuthorship: (Loew, 1840); Location: continent: Europe; country: Italy; countryCode: I; stateProvince: Veneto Region; county: Padova Province; locality: Euganean Hills; verbatimElevation: 250 m; verbatimCoordinates: 45°19'16.08"N 11°42'20.06"E; decimalLatitude: 45.3211; decimalLongitude: 11.7055; georeferenceSources: Google Maps; Identification: identifiedBy: L. Mazzon; dateIdentified: 2006; Event: samplingProtocol: mouth aspirator; eventDate: 14/06/2006; habitat: edge of forest, on ; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Distribution

Austria, Czechia, Estonia, Germany, Finland, France, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Moldova, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine (Korneyev and White 1991, Merz and Korneyev 2011); Russia, east to southern Siberia (Krasnoyarsk); Kazakhstan; Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan; Kyrghyzstan (Korneyev and White 1991); Iran (Zarghani et al. 2016). The species (Fig. 1a) is here recorded as new to Italy.

Figure 1a.

(Loew, 1840)

Biology

The biology of is poorly known. The flies are said to have been reared from Lam. (Roser 1840, as “”), L. (Loew 1862: 68), L. (Korneyev et al. 2005; forming small non-lignified galls in a single flower head), L. (Hendel 1927) and L. (Merz 1994), but there are no comprehensive rearing data or descriptions of its biology.

5DD226B4-8501-55DD-8824-A3AC72E27A17

Type status:Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: L. Mazzon; individualCount: 5; sex: 4 males and 1 female; lifeStage: adult, reared from immature stages; preparations: dry whole insect; Taxon: scientificName: ; higherClassification: Subfamily ; genus: ; specificEpithet: ; scientificNameAuthorship: (Frauenfeld, 1857); Location: continent: Europe; country: Italy; countryCode: I; stateProvince: Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region; county: Pordenone Province; locality: Montereale Val Cellina; verbatimElevation: 1100 m; verbatimCoordinates: 46°10'00.0"N 12°36'00.0"E; decimalLatitude: 46.1668; decimalLongitude: 12.6000; georeferenceSources: Google Maps; Identification: identifiedBy: L. Mazzon; dateIdentified: 2005; Event: samplingProtocol: from flower heads of ; eventDate: 25/06/2005; habitat: edge of forest; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Austria, Czechia, central and southern France, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, northern Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine (Merz and Korneyev 2011); Russia: West Siberia; Kazakhstan (Korneyev and White 1999); Iran (Zarghani et al. 2016). Note: the present records from Italy (Fig. 1b) confirm the country-level record by Merz and Korneyev (2011).

Figure 1b.

(Frauenfeld, 1857)

The larvae develop in the achenes of (L.) D.Gut.Larr. et al. (= ), (L.) D.Gut.Larr. et al. (= ) (Frauenfeld 1857), (L.) D.Gut.Larr. et al. (= ) (Anonymous 1934), (L.) D.Gut.Larr. et al. (= ) (Mihalyi 1960, Korneyev and White 1991) and (L.) D.Gut.Larr. et al. (= ) (Richter 1988), forming no obvious galls.

6E9FDE32-3C4D-5944-A7B0-57DE0C2794FA

Type status:Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: V. Girolami; individualCount: 2; sex: 1 male and 1 female; lifeStage: adult; preparations: dry whole insect; Taxon: scientificName: ; higherClassification: Subfamily ; genus: ; specificEpithet: ; scientificNameAuthorship: (Meigen, 1826); Location: continent: Europe; country: Italy; countryCode: I; stateProvince: Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region; county: Pordenone Province; municipality: Fanna; locality: Via Vals; verbatimElevation: 320 m; verbatimCoordinates: 46°11'6.43"N 12°43'55.33"E; decimalLatitude: 46.1851; decimalLongitude: 12.7320; georeferenceSources: Google Maps; Identification: dateIdentified: 2007; Event: samplingProtocol: reared from flower heads of ; eventDate: 15/07/2006; habitat: grassland; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status:Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: V. Girolami; individualCount: 2; sex: 2 females; preparations: dry whole insect; Taxon: scientificName: ; higherClassification: Subfamily ; genus: ; specificEpithet: ; scientificNameAuthorship: (Meigen, 1826); Location: continent: Europe; country: Italy; countryCode: I; stateProvince: Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region; county: Pordenone Province; municipality: Fanna; locality: Via Vals; verbatimElevation: 320 m; verbatimCoordinates: 46°11'6.43"N 12°43'55.33"E; decimalLatitude: 46.1851; decimalLongitude: 12.7320; georeferenceSources: Google Maps; Identification: dateIdentified: 2007; Event: samplingProtocol: reared from flower heads of ; eventDate: 26/06/2007; habitat: grassland; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Northern, central and eastern Europe from northern Spain, southern France and Italy (Merz 1994, Merz and Korneyev 2011) to Ukraine, European and Asian Russia and Kazakhstan (Korneyev and White 1996); Iran (Mohamadzade Namin and Nozari 2011). Notes: the present records from Italy (Fig. 1c) confirm the country-level record by Merz and Korneyev (2011). The record from Turkey by Kütük et al. (2013) needs confirmation.

Figure 1c.

(Meigen, 1826)

The larvae develop in flower heads of L. (incl. ssp. ) and L. (White and Korneyev 1989); records of other host species, including “" (Merz 1994) need confirmation.

DFFD5088-752B-5822-B430-0AACC79F4621

Type status:Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: V. Girolami; individualCount: 16; sex: 9 males and 7 females; lifeStage: adult; preparations: dry whole insect; Taxon: scientificName: ; higherClassification: Subfamily ; genus: ; specificEpithet: ; scientificNameAuthorship: Merz, 1992; Location: continent: Europe; country: Italy; countryCode: I; stateProvince: Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region; county: Pordenone Province; municipality: Fanna; locality: Val Cellina; verbatimElevation: 290 m; verbatimCoordinates: 46°10'11.8"N 12°40'02.7"E; decimalLatitude: 46.1699; decimalLongitude: 12.6674; georeferenceSources: Google Maps; Identification: identifiedBy: L. Mazzon; dateIdentified: 2006; Event: samplingProtocol: reared from flower heads of ; eventDate: 10/07/2006; habitat: gravel streambed; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Austria (Merz and Kofler 2008), Hungary (Merz 2000), Russia (Basov 1999), Switzerland (Merz 1992) and Ukraine (Korneyev 2003). The species (Fig. 2a) is here recorded as new to Italy.

Figure 2a.

Merz, 1992

The larvae feed in flower heads of Vill. (Merz 1992).

9E43CCD2-F403-51B2-8FB5-C756DC4A93A9

Type status:Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: L. Mazzon; individualCount: 20; sex: 11 males and 9 females; lifeStage: adult; preparations: dry whole insect; Taxon: scientificName: ; higherClassification: Subfamily ; genus: ; specificEpithet: ; scientificNameAuthorship: (Loew, 1856); Location: continent: Europe; country: Italy; countryCode: I; stateProvince: Veneto Region; county: Vicenza Province; locality: Monte Cengio; verbatimElevation: 1320 m; verbatimCoordinates: 45°48'40.10"N 11°23'39.36"E; decimalLatitude: 45.8111; decimalLongitude: 11.3943; georeferenceSources: Google Maps; Identification: identifiedBy: L. Mazzon; dateIdentified: 2005; Event: samplingProtocol: reared from flower heads of ; eventDate: 02/07/2005; habitat: edge of forest; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Austria, Czechia, France, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine (Merz and Korneyev 2011). The species (Fig. 2b) is here recorded as new to Italy.

Figure 2b.

(Loew, 1856)

The larvae feed in flower heads of Jacq. (Loew 1856).

8BFC5E9D-2525-57A3-A97E-C5DF4F52896A

Type status:Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: L. Mazzon; individualCount: 17; sex: 8 males and 9 females; lifeStage: adult; preparations: dry whole insect; Taxon: scientificName: ; higherClassification: Subfamily ; genus: ; specificEpithet: ; scientificNameAuthorship: Merz, 1992; Location: continent: Europe; country: Italy; countryCode: I; stateProvince: Trentino-Alto Adige Region; county: Trento Province; municipality: Moena; locality: San Pellegrino Pass; verbatimElevation: 1925 m; verbatimCoordinates: 46°22'48.0"N 11°47'37.0"E; decimalLatitude: 46.3800; decimalLongitude: 11.7936; georeferenceSources: Google Maps; Identification: identifiedBy: L. Mazzon; dateIdentified: 2008; Event: samplingProtocol: reared from flower heads of ; eventDate: 28/07/2008; habitat: pasture; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Armenia (Evstigneev and Glukhova 2020), Czechia, France, Italy, Switzerland (Merz and Korneyev 2011), Russia (Evstigneev 2016), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan (Korneyev 2016a), Poland (Klasa and Palaczyk 2005), Tajikistan (Korneyev and Korneyev 2019) and Ukraine (Korneyev and Klasa 2016). Note: the present records from Italy (Fig. 2c) confirm the country-level record by Merz and Korneyev (2011).

Figure 2c.

Merz, 1992

The larvae develop in flower heads of (Gouan) A. Kern. (Merz 1992), L. (Shcherbakov 2001, Korneyev 2016a), (Jacq.) K. Koch (Evstigneev 2016) and K. Koch (Evstigneev and Glukhova 2020).

Notes

This species was recorded from continental Italy by Merz and Korneyev (2011), without further collection data. Korneyev (2016a) treated as a senior synonym of Bassov and Tolstoguzova, 1994, Bassov and Tolstoguzova, 1994 and Scherbakov, 2001, all described from Russia.

E7BA4CEE-2710-5E79-A6E5-53139E8FBBE2

Type status:Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: V. Girolami; individualCount: 3; sex: 1 males and 2 females; lifeStage: adult; preparations: dry whole insect; Taxon: scientificName: ; higherClassification: Subfamily ; genus: ; specificEpithet: ; scientificNameAuthorship: Merz, 1992; Location: continent: Europe; country: Italy; countryCode: I; stateProvince: Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region; county: Pordenone Province; municipality: Fanna; verbatimElevation: 280 m; verbatimCoordinates: 46°11'12.3"N 12°44'39.7"E; decimalLatitude: 46.1867; decimalLongitude: 12.7444; georeferenceSources: Google Maps; Identification: identifiedBy: L. Mazzon; dateIdentified: 2007; Event: samplingProtocol: reared from flower heads of ; eventDate: 28/05/2007; habitat: grassland; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Central Europe (Austria, Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland) (Merz and Korneyev 2011), Finland (Kahanpää and Winqvist 2014), Russia (Korneyev 2016b) and Ukraine (Korneyev and Klasa 2016). Note: the present records from Italy (Fig. 2d) confirm the country-level record by Merz and Korneyev 2011.

Figure 2d.

Merz, 1992

The larvae feed in flower heads of L. (Merz 1992, Merz 1994).

A311316E-33A9-5F21-84B5-8B731A9CAC09

Type status:Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: V. Girolami; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; preparations: dry whole insect; Taxon: scientificName: ; higherClassification: Subfamily ; genus: ; specificEpithet: ; scientificNameAuthorship: (Meigen, 1826); Location: continent: Europe; country: Italy; countryCode: I; stateProvince: Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region; county: Pordenone Province; municipality: Maniago; locality: Colvera; verbatimElevation: 210 m; verbatimCoordinates: 46°10'11.11"N, 12°44'16.48"E; decimalLatitude: 46.1698; decimalLongitude: 12.7379; georeferenceSources: Google Maps; Identification: identifiedBy: L. Mazzon; dateIdentified: 2006; Event: samplingProtocol: reared from flower heads of ; eventDate: 10/07/2006; habitat: gravel streambed; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status:Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: V. Girolami; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; preparations: dry whole insect; Taxon: scientificName: ; higherClassification: Subfamily ; genus: ; specificEpithet: ; scientificNameAuthorship: (Meigen, 1826); Location: continent: Europe; country: Italy; countryCode: I; stateProvince: Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region; county: Pordenone Province; municipality: Cavasso Nuovo; locality: Meduna; verbatimElevation: 147 m; verbatimCoordinates: 46°12'41.0"N 12°46'38.9"E; decimalLatitude: 46.2114; decimalLongitude: 12.7775; georeferenceSources: Google Maps; Identification: identifiedBy: L. Mazzon; dateIdentified: 2006; Event: samplingProtocol: reared from flower heads of ; eventDate: 07/07/2006; habitat: gravel streambed; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Austria, France, Hungary, Switzerland (Merz and Korneyev 2011); Armenia (Korneyev 1983); Russian North Caucasus (Korneyev and Korneyev, unpublished data). The species (Fig. 2e) is here recorded as new to Italy.

Figure 2e.

(Meigen, 1826)

The larvae develop in flower heads of L. (Frauenfeld 1857); this species is superficially similar to All.; either both species are infested by this species or misidentifications have occurred.

A42F684A-1BBC-569D-A4CA-C07EDE92372C

Type status:Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: V. Girolami; individualCount: 2; sex: males; lifeStage: adult; preparations: dry whole insect; Taxon: scientificName: ; higherClassification: Subfamily ; genus: ; specificEpithet: ; scientificNameAuthorship: Jermy, 1961; Location: continent: Europe; country: Italy; countryCode: I; stateProvince: Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region; county: Pordenone Province; municipality: Claut; verbatimElevation: 675 m; verbatimCoordinates: 46°16'6.14"N, 12°31'39.23"E; decimalLatitude: 46.2684; decimalLongitude: 12.5276; georeferenceSources: Google Maps; Identification: identifiedBy: L. Mazzon; dateIdentified: 2009; Event: samplingProtocol: reared from fruits of ; eventDate: 15/08/2008; habitat: edge of forest; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Switzerland, Ukraine (Merz and Korneyev 2011); Russian North Caucasus (Kandybina 1977), Turkey (Kütük and Özaslan 2006) and Iran (Mohamadzade Namin et al. 2010). The species (Fig. 2f) is here recorded as new to Italy.

Figure 2f.

Jermy, 1961

The larvae develop in seeds of L. (Jermy 1961, Merz 1994).

Discussion

Based on the present results and on a recent revision of the fauna, the revised checklist of Italian (Mazzon and Korneyev, in press) includes 151 extant and two fossil species.