Mayetiola destructor (Say, 1817)

Mayetiola destructor View in CoL (May, 1817)

Material examined. IRAN; 11♂♂ 6♀♀, West Azarbaijan (Azarbaijan-e Gharbi) province, Urmia 61 km north of Urmia –the northwestern slope of Qüshchï Pass , 38°03'10''N, 044°54'53''E, 1820 m, ex. Secale cereale , 15–23, ix. 2020, leg.: Y. Karimpour; deposited in the collection of Marcela Skuhravá, Prague GoogleMaps ; 4♂♂ 7♀♀, Ardabil province, Bil-e Savar, Jaafar Abad ; 39°25'53.8''N, 048°04'43.8''E, 201 m, ex. Triticum aestivum Lam. , 15–22.vii.2024, leg.: A. Alijani; deposited in HMIM GoogleMaps .

Morphology. Adults of HF ( Fig. 1A–B View Figure 1 ) are midge-like and about 3 mm long. The females ( Fig. 1A View Figure 1 ) are brown or black though the abdomen may be reddish brown owing to the presence of orange eggs developing inside. The males ( Fig. 1B View Figure 1 ) are slightly smaller. The wings are slightly darkened ( Fig. 1C View Figure 1 ) and the legs are as long as or longer than the body ( VanDuyn et al. 2003, Foster & Hein, 2009). The male genitalia in dorsal and lateral views are as in Figure 1D–E View Figure 1 . The bead-like antennae are well-developed with a basal scapus and pedicellus, and 14 flagellomeres. The scapus and pedicellus are the largest segments and globular in shape. The antennae are different in males and females: male antennae are longer and the flagellomeres obviously consist of a wider proximal part and a narrow distal part, the neck ( Harris, 1964; Schneeberg et al., 2013).

Life History. Mayetiola destructor is a polyphagous species and attacks many species of the family Poaceae . Although it is a minor pest of wheat in Europe, there are many records of its serious damage to cereals in North America, Ukraine, Hungary and Poland ( Skuhravá & Skuhravý, 2021). The duration of entire life cycle of the Hessian fly (HF), depending on the weather conditions takes between 20 to 61 days ( Painter, 1951) and according to the findings of Stuart et al. (2012), HF completes its life cycle in 28 days, but with temperature changing and during periods of diapause and summer dormancy, the completion of the life cycle is delayed. The life cycle was described by several authors ( Hamilton, 1966; Ratcliffe & Hatchett, 1997; Froster & Hein, 2009; Makni et al., 2011; Stuart et al., 2012; Flanders et al., 2013; Schmid et al., 2018). The adult females of M. destructor live 1 to 2 days and lay 250 to 300 eggs in the grooves of the upper surface of cereal leaves. Eggs are oval, reddish-orange or cream in colour, 0.5 mm long. Larvae go through three stages to complete development. The first instar larvae ( Fig. 2A View Figure 2 ) are legless, spindle-shaped, yellowish white to light green and 0.56 to 1.70 mm long. Second and third instar larvae grow between 1.70 to 4.00 mm and approximately 4.00 to 5.00 mm, respectively ( Gagne & Hatchett 1989; Schmid et al., 2018). The third larval stage and the pupa grow inside the cuticle of the second larval stage, which is known as the puparium. This stage is generally called as flaxseed stage ( Fig. 2B View Figure 2 ) due to its hardness and sclerotization, dark brown color and shape of the cuticle. Because puparium is very similar to flax, Linum usitatissimum L. ( Malpighiales : Linaceae ) seeds. In fact, flaxseed is a protective structure for puparia. The aestivation and diapause of HF depend on the temperature and humidity of the environment. Therefore, the number of generations is different across the world. In various published documents, it has been reported that HF produces 2 to 6 generations annually ( Lidell & Schuster, 1990; Flanders et al., 2013).