Asphondylia ratibidae
Taxonomy
This page represents the following TreeOfLife-200M taxonomic path.[1]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Diptera
- Family: Cecidomyiidae
- Genus: Asphondylia
- Species: Asphondylia ratibidae
Visual Description
Asphondylia ratibidae is a gall-inducing insect, and its presence is often identified by the characteristic galls it forms on its host plants. Observations from the TreeOfLife-200M dataset show these galls as distinct, often reddish or brownish, swollen structures developing on the flower heads of the host plant, such as Ratibida species.[1] These galls can appear as small, rounded, or slightly elongated protrusions emerging from the otherwise uniform, textured surface of the flower head.[1]
Biology and Ecology
Asphondylia ratibidae, commonly known as the Prairie Coneflower Gall Midge, is a species of gall midge in the family Cecidomyiidae.[2] It is known to interact with plants in the genus Ratibida, such as Ratibida columnifera, and has also been associated with Rudbeckia laciniata.[3] As a gall-inducing insect, the larvae alter the development of the host plant's tissues to create a protective and nutritive environment.[4]
Gallery
References
- 1 2 3 Dataset view for Animalia / Arthropoda / Insecta / Diptera / Cecidomyiidae / Asphondylia / ratibidae constructed from imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M records under this taxonomic path. Hugging Face Datasets. https://huggingface.co/datasets/imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M.
- ↑ Asphondylia ratibidae Felt, 1935. GBIF. https://www.gbif.org/species/1592655. Accessed 2026-07-14.
- ↑ Asphondylia ratibidae. Global Biotic Interactions. https://www.globalbioticinteractions.org/?targetTaxon=Asphondylia%20ratibidae. Accessed 2026-07-14.
- ↑ Asphondylia ratibidae. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphondylia_ratibidae. Accessed 2026-07-14.