''Daphnephila'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

gall midge Cecidomyiidae is a family of flies known as gall midges or gall gnats. As the name implies, the larvae of most gall midges feed within plant tissue, creating abnormal plant growths called galls. Cecidomyiidae are very fragile small insects us ...

that appears in the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

and

Oriental The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...

biogeographic realm A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions. De ...

s. ''Daphnephila'' species create leaf and stem

gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants, fungi, or animals. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to be ...

s on species of

laurel Laurel may refer to: Plants * Lauraceae, the laurel family * Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel People * Laurel (given name), people with the given name * Laurel (surname), people with the surname * Laurel (mus ...

plants, particularly in '' Machilus''. Based on analysis on sequences of the

mitochondria A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the Cell (biology), cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and Fungus, fungi. Mitochondria have a double lipid bilayer, membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosi ...

cytochrome c oxidase subunit I Cytochrome c oxidase I (COX1) also known as mitochondrially encoded cytochrome c oxidase I (MT-CO1) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''MT-CO1'' gene. In other eukaryotes, the gene is called ''COX1'', ''CO1'', or ''COI''. Cytochrom ...

, it has been suggested that in this genus, the stem-galling habit is a more ancestral state as opposed to the leaf-galling habit. ''Daphnephila'' was first described in 1905 by French

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

Jean-Jacques Kieffer. It contains at least nine described species from India, Japan, and Taiwan, and many more undescribed species are known. The genus appears to have originated tropically and dispersed to Japan through Taiwan.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

'' (Lauraceae) Induced by Five Species of ''Daphnephila'' (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) in Northeastern Taiwan."Zoological Science 32.3 (2015): 314-321. * Chiang, Tung-Chyuan, and 江東權. "Biosystematics of the galling midge ''Daphnephila'' (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) on ''Machilus'' spp.(Lauraceae) in Taiwan." (2012). * Chao, Jo-Fan, and Gwo-Ing Liao. "Histocytological aspects of four types of ambrosia galls on '' Machilus zuihoensis'' Hayata (Lauraceae)." Flora-Morphology, Distribution, Functional Ecology of Plants 208.3 (2013): 157–164. Diptera of Asia Taxa named by Jean-Jacques Kieffer Taxa described in 1905 Cecidomyiinae Nematocera genera {{Sciaroidea-stub

References

Bibliography

Further reading