A new article by Michael Ferro and John Plakidas describes a new species of fly that was collected in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Neostenoptera appalachiensis is a gall midge, and it is the first record of the genus Neostenoptera in the New World.

The specific name, appalachiensis, means “from the Appalachians” in Latin, in reference to the collection site of the type series from Tennessee, which is located along the western flank of the Appalachian Mountains.

“I collected this 10 years ago and couldn’t figure out what it was,” Ferro said. “I put it on Bugguide.net and finally John D. Plakidas recognized it as something he might be able to recognize. Amazingly, he figured out it was in the genus Neostenoptera. That genus is only known from one species described from copal (young amber) from Africa, and another species that was collected alive in the Congo.”

Read more at:

– A new species of Neostenoptera (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae: Winnertziinae) from eastern North America.