Dacus (Mellesis) feijeni White, 1998

Drew, R. A. I., Romig, M. C. & Dorji, C., 2007, Records Of Dacine Fruit Flies And New Species Of Dacus (Diptera: Tephritidae) In Bhutan, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 55 (1), pp. 1-21 : 15-16

Dacus (Mellesis) feijeni White

Dacus (Callantra) feijeni White , in Drew et al., 1998: 590. Holotype male in BMNH.

Material examined. – BHUTAN: 1 male, Rimchu trap No. 1, 17 May.2000, coll. C. Dorji ; 1 male, 16 km from Namling, 1600 m, 9 Jun.2001, coll. Brian Fletcher. Both specimens attracted to cue lure. Specimens in NPPC and QDPI .

Diagnosis. – Face fulvous with a pair of large circular to oval black spots; scutum dark red-brown, postpronotal lobes and notopleura yellow, narrow mesopleural stripe equal in width to notopleuron dorsally, a yellow triangle along anterior margin of mesonotal suture with base at notopleuron, lateral and medial postsutural vittae absent; setae: sc. 2; prsc. absent; ia. 1; p.sa. 1; a.sa. 1; mpl. 1; npl. 2; scp. 4; scutellum yellow except for narrow red-brown basal band; legs with fore and mid femora entirely red-brown, hind femora fulvous tending fuscous to dark fuscous on apical 1/3, fore tibiae fuscous, mid tibiae red-brown tending fuscous apically, hind tibiae dark red-brown to fuscous, tarsi with basal segment fulvous and apical four segments fulvous to red-brown; wings with cells bc and c pale fuscous, dense microtrichia covering all of cell c and outer corner of cell bc, a broad dark fuscous costal band confluent with R 4+5 basally then distinctly overlapping this vein around the region of r-m crossvein to the apex of the wing, cubital streak absent, supernumerary lobe weak; abdomen elongate oval and petiolate, terga III-V red-brown with a ‘T’ pattern consisting of a broad fuscous to dark fuscous band across anterior margin of tergum III expanding to cover lateral margins and a narrow medial longitudinal dark fuscous band over all three terga, broad fuscous to dark fuscous anterolateral corners on terga IV and V.

Attractant. – Cue lure.

Distribution. – Bhutan.

Hosts. – No known record.

Remarks. – This species was adequately described and illustrated in Drew et al. (1998). It is best distinguished by possessing the combination of dark red-brown scutum, yellow postpronotal lobes, red-brown femora and tibiae and abdominal terga III-V red-brown to fuscous. It is not a pest species.