The genus Colocasiomyia de Meijere (Diptera, Drosophilidae) is known to include 30 described and nearly 60 undescribed species classified into six species groups. Among these, the C. gigantea group of seven known species (two Southeast Asian and five Chinese) proved to be peculiar for its specificity on monsteroid (subfamily Monsteroideae, family Araceae) host plants. In this paper, two new species, C. todai Jiao & Gao, sp. nov. and C. liae Jiao & Gao, sp. nov., are described as members of the C. gigantea group with specimens collected from inflorescences of the monsteroid host species Rhaphidophora peepla (Roxb.) Schott and R. crassicaulis Engl. & Krause, respectively, in Yunnan, China. The two new species are delimitated, in comparison with all known species, based on not only morphological but also DNA barcode (partial sequence of the mitochondrial COI, i.e., cytochrome c oxydase subunit I, gene) data. A revised key to all the nine species of the C. gigantea species group is provided.
The gigantea group is one of the six species groups of the genus Colocasiomyia Meijere, 1914 (Diptera, Drosophilidae). All the nine known species of this group breed on inflorescence/infructescence of host plants of the subfamily Monsteroideae (Araceae) and are geographically restricted to the Oriental region: seven species found exclusively from Rhaphidophora spp. in southern China, and the remaining two from Sabah (host plant: Scindapsus coriaceus) in Borneo or from West Java (host plant: Epipremnum pinnatum). In the present paper, a new member of the gigantea group, C. daiae sp. nov., is described, with adult specimens and eggs collected from inflorescences of Scindapsus maclurei in Hainan, China and larvae and pupae reared from field-collected eggs in the laboratory.
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