A New Species of Dasiops (Diptera: Lonchaeidae) Injurious to Apricots

This paper describes a new species of the genus Dasiops Rondani, which is known to be a primary pest of apricot fruits in California (Moffitt and Yaruss, 1961). In common with other Lonchaeidae, the adult of this species is small (about three mm. long) and rather stout; with a shining, metallic blue-black body; the female possesses a long, piercer-wpe ovipositor (Figs. 5-7) similar to that of otitids and trypetids. Other characters that serve to distinguish the family include: black halteres, hairy frons which is narrower in the male than in the female (Figs. 1, 2), a single, reclinate upper frontal bristle, diverging postvertical bristles, a row of bristles near posterior nargin of the mesopleuron, one or more sternopleural bristles and (usually) bare ptero- and hypopleuron. The genus Dasiops can be distinguished from other genera of Lonchaeidae by the presence of tiny, forwardly directed poststigmatal bristles which arise in the depression above the mesothoracic spiracle just cephalad of the anterodorsal corner of the mesopleuron.