Braggia urovaneta

Adult apterae of Braggia urovaneta (see first picture below) have the head, thorax and abdomen black. The body is partially covered with powder-like grey wax in a more or less regular pattern leaving the mid-dorsum from tergites II to VI largely wax free. The siphunculi and cauda are black. Antennal segments I and II are black, segments III, IV, and the base of V are pale to dusky, and the apical portion of V and all of VI are dusky to light black. The antennae are without secondary rhinaria (cf. Braggia agathona, which usually has rhinaria on segments III & IV). The rostrum reaches to the metathoracic coxae. The prothorax has marginal tubercles. The femora and tarsi are dark, but the tibiae are pale with dusky apices. The abdominal dorsum is reticulated, and dorsal hairs are thin, without tuberculate bases (cf. Braggia uncompahgrensis, which has dorsal hairs very thick, arising from tuberculate bases). The siphunculi are quite long, but the rim is very poorly developed. The cauda is almost as wide at base as long, has a pointed tip, and bears 3-4 inwardly curving hairs. The body length of adult Braggia urovaneta apterae is 0.9-1.9 mm.

Images above copyright Jesse Rorabaugh under a public domain (CCO) licence.

The alate vivipara of Braggia urovaneta (see second picture below) has the head, thorax and abdomen black, and the antennae almost uniform dusky. The femora are dusky, the tibiae dusky at base and apically with the region between light yellowish, and the tarsi dusky. The siphunculi and cauda are dusky to black. The images below are clarified slide mounts of an apterous and an alate vivipara of Braggia urovaneta.

Images above copyright Jesse Rorabaugh under a public domain (CCO) licence.

Hille Ris Lambers (1966) recognised two subspecies of Braggia urovaneta:

• Braggia urovaneta s.str has the last rostral segment about 0.145-0.175 mm long, about 1.29-1.50 times as long as second joint of hind tarsi, 2.33-2.67 times basal width of siphunculi. Pike (2009) gives Colorado, Utah, and Idaho for this subspecies to which we can now add Nevada; the specimens pictured here (see clarified mounts above) feeding on Eriogonum racemosum had a long apical rostral segment (0.165 mm).

• Braggia urovaneta ssp. pachysiphon has the last rostral segment shorter, 0.11-0.135 mm long, 0.93-1.20 times the second hind tarsal segment; 1.20-2.00 times the basal width of the thicker siphunculi. It is found on Eriogonum latifolium in California.