Ampelomyia viticola, the grape tube gallmaker, is a species of
gall midge found in the eastern United States and Canada. It produces green or bright red galls on new world
grape vines.[6]
The magazine The American Entomologist had a column where readers could ask for identifications. In 1869 a reader from
Piermont, New York, asked the editors about the crimson galls found on a grape leaf. The editors,
Benjamin Dann Walsh and
Charles Valentine Riley, responded that in unpublished manuscripts of theirs they had given the galls the name Vitis lituus and noted they were made by a gall gnat in the genus Cecidomyia.[3] This would create a specific name Cecidomyia vitis lituus, which is an
unavailable name.[7][1] In 1911,
Ephraim Porter Felt incorrectly referred to this species as "Cecidomyia lituusWalsh",[5][1] In 1878, Osten-Sacken noted that "the gall Vitis-lituusRiley" was the same as his C. viticola.[4] In 2019, this species was transferred from Schizomyia to the new genus Ampelomyia.[8]
The
specific epithetviticola is a Latin noun in
apposition; it consists of the word vitis "grape vine" and the suffix -cola "one who inhabits".[9][10][11] The Latin noun lituus used in its synonyms refers to a kind of curved staff or curved trumpet.[12]
This species has also been documented in Ontario, Canada.[30][31][32]
There had been reports of this species being found in Japan,[33] but these are now taken to be misidentifications.[34][1]
Description
Gall
There can be up to 75 galls[24] or even 135 galls[35] on a single leaf. The galls are typically on the upper side of the leaf; their color is typically crimson, although they can be green when young or on the leaf's underside.[20] They measure approximately 7–10 millimetres (0.3–0.4 in) long.[31] The diameter of the gall at its base is 1.5–3 mm (0.06–0.12 in).[36][31] They are narrow and conical, and sometimes have a slight curve at the tip.[16] The galls each contain a single chamber,[31] which is smooth inside.[24] Common names for the gall include the grape-leaf trumpet-gall,[35] the conical grape gall,[24] and the grape tube gall.[14]
Larvae
The larva measures about 1 mm (0.04 in) long. It is moderately stout, pale yellowish green. Its head is broad, broadly rounded anteriorly, almost subglobose. The antennae are moderately long, stout, and biarticulate; the basal segment is disk-like, while the apical one has a length over twice its diameter. There are conspicuous brownish spots near the latero-posterior angles of the head. Its skin is smooth with distinct segmentation. The breast-bone is weakly chitinized, minute, and reniform. The anterior margin has two small submedian teeth and more laterally there is a pair of smaller teeth. A small scattering of setae occur on the body. Its posterior extremity is bilobed: the ventral portion bears stout, submedian, chitinous, upcurved processes, and each has an indistinct basal tooth anteriorly. The extremities at its posterior extremity are prehensile. The dorsal lobe is broad and obliquely truncate as seen from the side. The face is armed with an irregular series of moderately large, conical, chitinous teeth.[37]
The larvae have also been described as pale orange.[20][2][35]
Its larvae build galls on various species of the grape vine genus Vitis.[1] They have been found on leaves of V. riparia, V. labrusca, and V. vulpina.[20] Its galls have also been found on V. aestivalis var. bicolor.[16] The galls are present in July and August,[6] although have been documented as late as September 8.[15]
These galls are usually rare in vineyards, and therefore not harmful,[30] nor are they particularly harmful towards wild plants.[16][35]
^
abcdOsten Sacken, R. (1862).
"On the North American Cecidomydae". Monographs of the Diptera of North America. Part I. By Loew, H. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Vol. 6. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. p. 202.
^
abcWalsh, Benj. D.; Riley, Chas. V., eds. (1869).
"The Trumpet Grape-gall". Answers to Correspondents. The American Entomologist. 2 (1): 28.
^Elsayed, Ayman Khamis; Uechi, Nami; Yukawa, Junichi; Tokuda, Makoto (2019). "Ampelomyia, a new genus of Schizomyiina (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) associated with Vitis (Vitaceae) in the Palaearctic and Nearctic regions, with description of a new species from Japan". The Canadian Entomologist. 151 (2): 149–162.
doi:
10.4039/tce.2018.69.
S2CID92417561.
^"uīticola". Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1968. p. 2079. vitis + -cola.
^"uītis". Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1968. p. 2079. A grape-vine.
^"-cola". Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1968. p. 349. denotes one who inhabits, tills, or worships.
^"lituus". Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1968. p. 1039. 1. A curved staff carried by augurs. [...] 2. A kind of war-trumpet curved at one end.
^Plant Pest Control Division (1964).
"Fruit Insects". Cooperative Economic Insect Report. 14 (41): 1128.
^
abBritton, W. E. (1932).
"Entomological Features of 1931". Connecticut State Entomologist Thirty-First Report 1931. Bulletin. Vol. 338. New Haven: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. p. 500.
^
abBritton, W. E. (1937).
"Insect Record for 1936: Fruit Insects". Connecticut State Entomologist Thirty-Sixth Report 1936. Bulletin. Vol. 396. New Haven: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. p. 294.
^Shelford, Victor E. (1937).
"Animal Communities of Swamp and Flood-Plain Forests". Animal Communities in Temperate America: As Illustrated in the Chicago Region: A Study in Animal Ecology (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 191.
^Bureau of Entomology (1929).
"Fruit Insects". Insect Pest Survey Bulletin. 9 (8): 329.
^Plant Pest Control Division (1964).
"Fruit Insects". Cooperative Economic Insect Report. 14 (31): 872.
^
abcdRiley, Charles V. (1873).
"The Grape-leaf Trumpet-gall—Vitis viticola O.S.". Annual Report on the Noxious, Beneficial and Other Insects of the State of Missouri. Vol. 5. Jefferson City: Regan & Carter. pp. 118–119.
^Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine (1939).
"Fruit Insects". Insect Pest Survey Bulletin. 19 (8): 496.
^Johnson, Chas. W. (1900).
"Order Diptera". Insects of New Jersey. By Smith, John B. Trenton: MacCrellish & Quigley. p. 621.
^Yukawa, Junichi; Sunose, Tsukaka (1979). "Midge Galls of Hokkaido". Memoirs of the Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima University. 15: 91.
hdl:10232/3095.
^Sato, Shinsuke; Yukawa, Junichi (2006). "Resurrection of Rabdophaga salicivora Shinji (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), a Japanese gall midge formerly misidentified as a North American species, Rabdophaga rigidae (Osten Sacken), with observations on the phylogenetic relationships of its populations in Japan and the Russian Far East". Entomological Science. 9 (4): 423–424.
doi:
10.1111/j.1479-8298.2006.00188.x.
S2CID85403728.