Tolbia Cameron, 1907

Taxonomic History / Nomenclature
Tolbia Cameron, 1907: 84. Type species: Tolbia scaevolae Cameron, 1907: 85 (monobasic).

Type locality of scaevolae : “Chagos, Salomon Atoll (Isle de la Passe)” (Indian Ocean). Cameron did not indicate the number of specimens in his original description of scaevolae but a single specimen is in the British Museum type collection, labeled as type in Cameron’s hand, BM Type #3.c.710

Treated as a subgenus of Opius by Fischer (1972) and Tobias (1998); and as a synonym of Phaedrotoma by Li et al. (2013).

Diagnosis and Relationships
Tolbia was characterized by Fischer primarily on the basis of head sculpture (densely punctate or shagreened above). Most species (such as the one figured here from South India) are more heavily sculptured on the head and body than is the type species, Opius scaevolae (Cameron). Cameron, in fact, described this species as head, pro-, and mesothorax smooth and shining (Cameron 1907: 85).

The type species, Opius scaevolae, has a basal tooth or lobe on the mandible, but this feature is not readily visible unless the head is rotated to give a ventral-lateral view. This mandibular character would seem to preclude the placement of Tolbia as a synonym of Phaedrotoma, as was done by Li et al. (2013). Tolbia in the strict sense, as defined by its type species, also differs in several respects from many of the species placed there in Fischer’s classification (Fischer 1972, 1977, 1987). The species shown in the figures here is typical of most species placed in Tolbia by Fischer and thus differs in several respects from the type species. In addition to the mandibular character noted here, the type species has fore wing m-cu postfurcal and the first subdiscal cell closed, with 2CUb arising from the middle of the distal margin of the first subdiscal cell, the top of the head is only weakly shagreened, the malar sulcus is distinct, the pronotum has a small, round pronope middorsally (about as in Fig. 4), and T2+3 is striate rather than shagreened. Otherwise, the clypeus and exposed labrum are about as in Fig. 2 and T1 is a little broader posteriorly than in Fig. 9.

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1.Tolbia habitus
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3.Tolbia
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Distribution
No referenced distribution records have been added to the database for this OTU.
Biology / Hosts
The type species was described from material reared from leaf mines of the plant Scaevola (Goodeniaceae). This is a known host plant of at least one species of Ophiomyia (Agromyzidae) from Sri Lanka.
Map

There are no specimens currently determined for this OTU, or those specimens determined for this OTU are not yet mappable.

Acknowledgements
This page was assembled by Bob Wharton and Danielle Restuccia. It is part of a review of the genera of World Opiinae, conducted at Texas A&M University. We are particularly grateful to Xanthe Shirley, Andrew Ly, Patricia Mullins, Trent Hawkins, Lauren Ward, Cheryl Hyde, Karl Roeder, and Andrea Walker, who did nearly all of the imaging (together with Danielle) for this project. Matt Yoder and Istvan Miko provided guidance on databasing issues associated with our use of mx and HAO respectively. This project would not have been possible without the kindness of many curators at museums throughout the world who gave generously of their time to Bob Wharton and his students. In particular, I thank Henry Townes (deceased) and David Wahl (American Entomological Institute, Gainesville), Gordon Nishida (Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu), Norm Penny, and Bob Zuparko (California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco), Bill Mason (deceased), Mike Sharkey, Andrew Bennett, and Henri Goulet (Canadian National Collection, Ottawa), Paul Dessart (deceased) (Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels), Marc De Meyer (Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, Tervuren), Axel Bachmann (Museo Argentino de Ciencias Natureles, Buenos Aires), Eberhard Koenigsmann (deceased) and Frank Koch (Museum fuer Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universitaet, Berlin), J. Casevitz Weulersse and Claire Villemant (Museum National d’Historie Naturelle, Paris), James O’Connor (National Museum of Ireland, Dublin), Jenö Papp (National Museum of Natural History, Budapest), Kees van Achterberg (National Museum of Natural History, Leiden), Max Fischer, Herb Zettel, and Dominique Zimmermann (Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien), Per Persson and Lars-Åke Janzon (Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm), Ermenegildo Tremblay (Silvestri Collection, Portici), Erasmus Haeselbarth (Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns, Munich), Tom Huddleston and Gavin Broad (The Natural History Museum, London), Paul Marsh and Robert Kula (USDA Systematic Research Laboratory and US National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D. C.), Vladimir Tobias (deceased) and Sergey Belokobylskij (Zoological Institute, Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg), and Roy Danielsson (Zoological Institute, Department of Systematics, Lund) for facilitating loans and general assistance associated with examination of holotypes and other material in their care. This work was supported largely by NSF/PEET DEB 0328922 and 0949027, with REU supplements 0723663, 1026618, 1213790, and 1313933 (to Wharton). Page last updated March, 2015. The material on this page is freely available, but should be acknowledged if used elsewhere.

This material is based upon work at Texas A&M University supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers DEB 9300517, DEB (PEET) 9712543, DEB (PEET) 0328922 with REU supplements 0723663 and 1026618 and DEB 0949027 with REU supplements 1213790 and 1313933. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.