Notes on the Family Odiniidae with a Key to the Genera and Descriptions of New Species (Diptera)

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Abstract
The genera comprising the family Odiniidae (Hendel, 1922) will run to Agromyzidae in the key to families in Curran (1934), but are distinguished from this family by a number of important characters, notably the abdominal structure of the adult and the bucco-pharyngeal skeleton of the larva. Adult Odiniidae have five pregenital abdominal segments in both sexes. The sixth segment of the female is greatly reduced and largely hidden beneath the fifth, and the seventh is membranous and retractile. In Agromyzidae six well-developed pregenital segments are present and the seventh segment of the female is modified as a heavily-sclerotized non-retractile ovipositor. The odiniid larva (Figs. 2, 6.) has a mouth skeleton much like that of the more generalized saprophagous forms (e.g. Drosophila, Piophila, Lucilia) and in no way resembling the highly-specialized structure of Agromyzidae. Species of Odiniidae are pale grey or clay-yellow with the thorax and abdomen conspicuously mottled or vittate with dark brown. The wing is usually spotted, at least on the cross-veins, and the tibiae have a more or less evident preapical dorsal bristle. Because of the abdominal structure, Hennig (1938) considers them more closely related to Chamaemyiidae than to Agromyzidae. The immature stages have mostly been found living in the galleries of wood-boring Coleoptera and Lepidoptera but the adult of Turanodinia Stack, is reported to have been reared from egg-masses of Pseudococcus comstocki Kuw.

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