A revision of Melanesian Agromyzidae (Diptera)

The 49 species of Agromyzidae hitherto known in Melanesia have been revised and additional unidentified material in the Bishop Museum has been examined. Five new species described are: Ophiomyia dumosa, O. phalloides and Phytomyza inusitata from Vanuatu, Phytobia bifistula form Guadalcanal and Pseudonapomyza ommata from New Caledonia. Nine species known from the Oriental region are recorded as new to Melanesia. Of the 64 species now confirmed, 30 species (47 %) are endemic, 31 are present elsewhere in the Oriental and Australian regions, or in the Pacific area, and 3 are considered as introductions. (Accepted September 10, 2004) Key words : Diptera: Agromyzidae, Melanesia, new species, new records. Introduction The Agromyzidae in Melanesia has hitherto been poorly known taxonomically and biologically. Bezzi (1928) made a start in studying leaf-mines in Fiji, and recorded the occurrence of eight species: Melanagromyza leguminum (=albisquama), M. alysicarpi, M. phaseoli, Ophiomyia leucolepis (=cornuta), 0. lantanae, Dizygomyza bellidis (=Calycomyza humeralis), Liriomyza pusilla (=brassicae) and Pseudonapomyza atra (=spicata). Three Melanesian species of the genera Melanagromyza and Japanagromyza were described as new to science by Spencer (1962a). In my earlier revision of the Polynesian Agromyzidae (only in New Hebrides and Fiji) and two papers on New Caledonian and Papuan species, 30 Melanesian species were identified, of which 10 were new, in the genera Melanagromyza, Ophiomyia, Japanagromyza, Phytobia, Calycomyza, Liriomyza and Pseudonapomyza. After then, 12 new and 11 newly recorded species were described from the Bismarcks and New Hebrides by Spencer (1966). Five new and nine newly recorded species described in the present paper are based upon the unidentified material in the Melanesian Diptera collection of the B. P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu. Most of the specimens have been collected by Dr. N. L. H. Krauss during the past 35 years. Materials and Methods About 1,200 dried specimens of the Melanesian agromyzid leaf-miners identified in this study were mostly collected by the Bishop Museum staff. Collector's names are abbreviated to the initials, excepting the data of new species: WB- W. W. Brandt, EF- E. J. Ford, Jr., JG- J. L. Gressitt, WG- W. C. Gagne, CJ- C. R. Joyce, NK- N. L. H. Krauss, GS- G. A. Samuelson, J-MS- J. & M. Sedlacek, PS- P. Shanahan, RS- R. Straatman, TM- T. C. Maa, BM- B. Malkin, GN- G. M. Nishida, CO- C. W. O'Brien, CY- C. M. Yoshimoto and EZ- E. C. Zimmerman. The terminology, including abbreviations for certain setae or bristles and wing veins, follows Sasakawa (1963c), but pd, T3-6 and S5-7 in this paper mean the postero-dorsal bristles on tibia, third to sixth