Eocincticornia multitudinea (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), a gall midge malforming leaves of Eucalyptus in south-eastern Australia

ABSTRACTA gall midge (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), originally described as Ascelis (?) multitudinea Tepper, 1893 and erroneously placed in Coccoidea (Hemiptera), is redescribed and placed in Eocincticornia multitudinea (Tepper) n. comb. The larvae of E. multitudinea feed and induce large, spherical, green, yellow or red galls on leaves of Eucalyptus obliqua, E. piperita, E. baxteri, E. radiata, E. goniocalyx and E. fastigata in south-eastern Australia. The scope of the genus Eocincticornia Felt is updated.Zoobank LSID of publication: http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:09B77C0C-93A8-46F1-AC1E-397654AB5E9KEYWORDS: GallinsectEucalyptusCecidomyiidae AcknowledgmentsWe thank Andrew Orme and Richard Johnstone (National Herbarium of NSW, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney) who identified Eucalyptus piperita, the host plant at Wentworth Falls, and lodged a voucher specimen with the NSW Herbarium; Lauren Fitzgerald and David Pitts (both Parks Victoria) who collected galls in Victoria on E. obliqua and E. baxteri, respectively; and Deborah S. Kent (Brierfield, New South Wales, Australia) for helpful comments on an early draft of the manuscript.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).