Gitona distigma (Diptera: Drosophilidae)—high resolution diagnostic images

Gitona distigma Meigen, 1830—the type species of the genus Gitona Meigen, 1830—is widespread: Brake & Bächli, 2008 (World Catalogue of Insects. Drosophilidae 9 : 1–412) list the species as Palearctic and Oriental, occurring from Europe to India and China. Imaged here are specimens from Bordeaux, France and Szeged, Hungary. Only one species of Gitona is known from Australia—G. incohata Bock, 1982 (see high resolution diagnostic images in McEvey, 2026 doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.32779767). Gitona distigma has distinctive black marks (stigmata) terminally on the second and third longitudinal veins (Figs 1, 3); the distance between crossveins r-m and dm-m is small so the 4v-index is high: from 3.2 (Bächli et al., 2004 Fauna Ent. Scand. pp i–viii, 1–362) to as large as 5.3 (see the Bordeaux specimen, Fig. 3); wing cell bm is confluent with cell dm—there is no crossvein between them (Fig. 4); the arista is micropubescent (Fig. 2); the prescutellar setae are long (Fig. 3); the three fronto-orbital setae are large, subequal, equidistant, and not confined to posterior frontal half (Fig. 5); the facial carina is large (Fig. 6); both ocellar and postocellar setae are present (Fig. 7). Although not visible in these images, there is one large proepisternal seta present. Collectors often encounter Gitona distigma whilst keeping flowerheads of Sonchus arvensis L. (Asteraceae) to rear anthophilic tephritids (Bächli et al., 2004).