Balog, Adalbert

Bálint, János

Fail, József

Neacşu, Petre

Vétek, Gábor

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North-Western Journal of Zoology                                                                                  Vol. 6, No. 2, 2010, pp.319-322 P-ISSN: 1584-9074, E-ISSN: 1843-5629                                                                                                         Article No.: 061210   ©NwjZ, Oradea, Romania, 2010                                                                                                                                                    North-West J Zool, 6, 2010 www.herp-or.uv.ro/nwjz                                                                                                                                                                                 Oradea, Romania  First record of the black locust gall midge,  Obolodiplosis robiniae (Haldeman) (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae),  in Romania  János BÁLINT1,2*,  Petre NEACŞU3,  Adalbert BALOG1,   József FAIL2   and   Gábor VÉTEK2  1. Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Technical and Human Sciences,  Sapientia – Hungarian University of Transylvania, Sighişoara str. 1/C, Tîrgu-Mureş, Romania. 2. Department of Entomology, Faculty of Horticultural Science,  Corvinus University of Budapest, H-1118 Budapest, Villányi str. 29-43, Hungary. 3. Str. Radu Boiangiu Nr. 8, Bl. 38, Sc. A, Ap. 13, Sector 1. Bucureşti, Romania. * Corresponding author, J. Bálint, Tel: (40)0744-782982, Fax: (40)0265-206211,  E-mail: balint.janos@yahoo.com   Abstract. The black locust gall midge, Obolodiplosis robiniae (Haldeman), and detailed data on the currently known distribution of the pest are reported for the first time from Romania. Its rapid spread throughout Europe means a potential threat for conspicuous damage to black locust. Parasi-tized gall midge larvae were also observed. On the basis of the morphological characters of the para-sitized larvae, the parasitoid species is most likely Platygaster robiniae.   Key words: new pest, Obolodiplosis robiniae, parasitoid, Platygaster robiniae, Romanian fauna.    Several dipteran species expansions have been reported in a last few years (Gharali & Rimmer 2008, 2010). Black locust (Robinia pseudacacia L.) (Fabaceae) is native to the eastern part of North America. It was introduced to Europe at the beginning of the 17th century, and first planted in France around 1601 and Italy in 1622 (Pig-natti 1982). Nowadays, the species is widely distributed throughout Europe. It is used for forestation, as an ornamental plant in parks and gardens, and it is also planted along roads. The natural distribution area of the black locust gall midge Obolodiplosis robiniae (Haldeman 1847) coincides with its host plant, R. pseu-doacacia (Gagné 1989). The pest was first re-ported outside of its original distribution area from the Far East, China, Korea and Japan in 2002 (Kodoi et al. 2003). In Europe, the damage of the gall midge was first observed in North-ern Italy in July 2003, more than 400 years after the introduction of black locust (Duso & Skuhravá 2003). After its appearance, the pest started invading the continent; it was recorded in the Czech Republic (Skuhravá & Skuhravý 2005) and Slovenia (Duso et al. 2005) in 2004. Two years later, it was found in Croatia, Ger-many, (Skuhravá et al. 2007, Wehrmaker 2007), Hungary (Csóka 2006), Slovakia (Zúbrik et al. 2007) and the Ukraine (Berest & Titar 2007). The pest was reported from the Netherlands (Roskam et al. 2007), Switzerland (Wermelin-ger & Skuhravá 2007), Austria, France, Poland, Serbia and the UK (Skuhravá et al. 2007, Laguerre & Dauphin 2007) in 2007, Luxemburg (Schneider & Walisch 2009) and Sweden (Molnár et al. 2009) in 2008 and Denmark (Jörgensen 2009) in 2009. Further data on the distribution of the pest were given by Skuhra-vá et al. 2010. According to this publication O. robiniae is also present in Albania, Macedonia and Russia (Fig. 1). In Romania the species  was recorded for  Bálint, J. et al.  North-West J Zool, 6, 2010 320 the first time in 2007 from Bucureşti (Ilfov county), then in 2009 from Ploieşti (Prahova county) and Mărunţişu (Dâmboviţa county) and in 2010 from Arad (Arad county) and Piteşti (Argeş county) (Fig. 2). In Romania, the characteristic damage of the black locust gall midge was observed on R. pseudoacacia trees planted by the side of a road. On the basis of infested leaves collected and the different de-velopmental stages found in the galls, the spe-cies could be identified unambiguously. For the identification the description given by Duso & Skuhravá (2003) was used. One female and four third instar larvae were deposited at the Department of Horticulture, Sapientia – Hungarian University of Transylvania, Roma-nia. These are the first records of this species in Romania.    Figure 1.  Spread of Obolodiplosis robiniae (Haldeman) in Europe.   The adults of O. robiniae are yellowish brown in colour, male 2.6-2.8 mm, female 3-3.2 mm long. The antennae in both sexes are 2+12 segmented. The larvae of the third instar (fully grown larvae) are pale yellow, with a long spatula sternalis on the ventral side of the pro-thoracic segment (Duso & Skuhravá 2003). De-tailed description of the morphology of the black locust gall midge was given by Duso & Skuhravá (2003).   Figure 2. Spread of Obolodiplosis robiniae (Haldeman)  in Romania.   The life cycle of O. robiniae in North Amer-ica was studied by Barnes (1951), while in Europe, Kodoi et al. (2003), Duso et al. (2005), Skuhravá & Skuhravý (2005) and Skuhravá et al. (2007) investigated the biology of the spe-cies. On the basis of data found in these stud-ies, the life cycle of the pest may be summa-rized as follows. Several generations (2, 3 or even 4) of the gall midge may develop in a year depending on the climatic conditions. The number of generations is also affected by the fact that newly growing leaves may occur on black locust throughout the vegetation period, and the females oviposit on the young leaflets. Adults of the first generation might emerge soon after the frondescence of the host plant from the middle of May until the end of June or the beginning of July. Adults of the second generation fly from the beginning of July until August and the adults of the third generation from September to October. Larvae of the summer generations pupate in the galls on trees, while those of the autumn generation pupate in the soil after leaf fall.     According to our observations, the margins of R. pseudacacia leaflets are rolled downwards by the feeding of larvae (Fig. 3) forming a characteristic leaf gall. Usually 1-2 larvae can be found in a gall and 1-2 galls per leaflet. Sometimes, galls are formed on  all  leaflets of a  Obolodiplosis robiniae, new to the Romanian fauna  North-West J Zool, 6, 2010 321leaf, both parts of the leaflet blade are rolled along the midrib and they turn dark green or reddish in colour. Infestations were observed on trees of different age.     Parasitized gall midge larvae were also ob-served in the collected material (Fig. 4). Com-paring the morphological characters of these larvae with the descriptions found in the rele-vant literature (Skuhravá et al. 2007, Buhl & Duso 2008) it may be presumed that the parasi-toid species is Platygaster robiniae (Hymenop-tera: Platygastridae). However, this must be confirmed by rearing and identification of adult wasps. The significance of O. robiniae as a pest of R. pseudoacacia in Romania can not be surely es-tablished, but severe damage in the future is possible. In the 19th century, in Pennsylvania, North America, Haldeman (1847) observed a serious defoliation of R. pseudacacia caused by this pest. The attacked trees looked as if they had been killed by dry weather (Fitch 1859). In the past, O. robiniae was common and occa-sionally injurious but currently the economic importance of the insect needs to be deter-mined (Duso & Skuhravá 2003).   Figure 3. Damage caused by the larvae of the black locust gall midge (Photo: G. Vétek).     Figure 4. A parasitized larva of the black locust gall midge (Photo: G. Vétek).  Bálint, J. et al.  North-West J Zool, 6, 2010 322  References  Barnes, H.F. (1951): Gall Midges of Economic Importance. Vol. V. Gall midges of trees. Crosby Lockwood & Son Ltd., London. Buhl, P.N., Duso, C. (2008): Platygaster robiniae n. sp. (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) Parasitoid of Obolodiplosis robiniae (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) in Europe. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 101 (2): 297–300. Berest, Z.L., Titar, V.M. 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First record of the black locust gall midge Obolodiplosis robiniae (HALDEMAN) (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) in Romania

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