New records of gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) from Northern Western Ghats, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Gall midges are small, inconspicuous flies, but they may be very important both in forest ecosystems and in agroecosystems. These are most common flies in all the zoogeographic regions. Information about its geographical distribution in India is very limited and many records are restricted to the type locality. The present study reports two species of gall midges i.e., Clinodiplosischampioni (Mani) 1935 and Clinodiplosisindica (Rao) 1953) as new records from Northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra. Previously, these two species have been reported from Southern Western Ghats (Karnataka) and Utter Pradesh. The known distribution of these species now includes Northern Western Ghats as well.