Carpophthoromyia litterata, Munro, 1933

Meyer, Marc De, 2006, Systematic revision of the fruit fly genus Carpophthoromyia Austen (Diptera, Tephritidae), Zootaxa 1235, pp. 1-48 : 16-18

C. litterata ( Munro, 1933)

( Figs. 2, 3 )

Trirhithrum litteratum Munro, 1933: 33 .

Trirhithrum litteratum: Cogan & Munro 1980 . Carpophthoromyia litterata: Hancock 1987 .

Diagnosis

Arista short pubescent to medium pilose; three frontals; scutum with two broad transverse bands; postpronotum white; scutellum with three separate or merged brown spots, visible in dorsal view; anterior margin of wing with two indentations, in cell c and sc; Sband and inverted V­band largely fused along cells cu2 and dm.

Description

Head. Antennal segments yellow. Arista short pubescent to medium long pilose, longest rays one­third to half width of first flagellomere. Frons yellow. Three frontals placed almost on straight line, with anterior frontal at most 1.5 times as far from the inner eye margin than posterior frontal; two orbitals. Face white, gena yellow.

Thorax. Scutum shining brown to orange­brown; black setulae, except for two broad transverse bands with silvery setulae: one anteriorly of transverse suture continuing posteriorly along lateral margin to postsutural supraalars, second partly incomplete band between dorsocentrals. Postpronotum white. Anepisternum with white to yellow band with lower margin reaching to lower third or halfway posterior margin; with pale setulae, lower fourth to third posteriorly with black setulae, two anepisternals. Katatergite and anatergite white. Scutellum white, apical third with three separate brown spots, occasionally partly merged. Subscutellum brown to yellow­brown

Legs yellow, femora darker yellow­brown in female.

Wing ( Figs. 2­3 ). Hyaline indentation in cell c, with dark brown spots and streaks. Additional hyaline indentation near junction of vein C with apical part of vein R1, reaching R4+5. S­band with subapical tooth. S­band and inverted V­band largely fused along cells cu2 and dm, dm and anterior part of r4+ 5 in male; in female partly separated in cu2 and dm. Crossvein DM­Cu straight or slightly sinuous. R­M ratio 1.86–1.88.

Abdomen. Shining brown, tergite 1 yellow­orange along anterior half; tergites 2 and 4 along posterior half to two­thirds yellow to yellow­orange, sometimes tergite 2 largely and tergite 5 in median part posteriorly yellow­orange; with black setulae, tergites 2 and 4 with silvery setulae and microtrichosity along yellow­orange band. Spermatheca ovoid in apical part, base slender. Female terminalia, oviscape shining yellow­orange; longer than abdominal tergites. Aculeus orange, cylindrical, about 25 times longer than wide; tip simply pointed, slightly downcurved.

Body length: 7.20 (6.80–7.60)mm; wing length 7.64 (7.44–7.92)mm

Material examined

Type material: lectotype (herewith designated) M: SOUTH AFRICA, Durban, March 1932, W.E. Marriott, bait trap (PPRI). Paralectotypes: same locality as lectotype, 1Ψ, February 1932, W.E. Marriott, bait trap (PPRI); 1ɗ 1Ψ, Durban, April1932, W.E. Marriott, bait trap (BMNH).

Other material: SOUTH AFRICA, Durban 1Ψ, Durban, January 1935, bait trap; 1ɗ, March 1937, “M631”, both W.E. Marriott (KMMA).

Material tentatively identified as litterata : KENYA, 1ɗ, Tiwi Mombasa, April 1964, R. Carcasson (NMK).

Distribution

South Africa, Kenya?

Host plants

The code “M631” on one of the specimens in the KMMA collection refers to material reared from fruits of Drypetes natalensis (Harv.) Hutch. (Euphorbiaceae) according to Munro’s logbook.

Comments

The original description lists a male and female type and 21 male and 13 female paratypes. The male is hereby designated as lectotype while the remaining series are considered as paralectotypes. The specimen from Kenya in the NMK collection is heavily damaged with the wings only partly remaining. It’s general pattern (especially fusion of Sband and inverted V­band) seems to indicate that it concerns C. litterata . It differs from the typical representatives in that the femora distinctly darker than the remainder of the legs. The specimen is tentatively placed here but more material is needed to confirm the presence of this species beyond South Africa.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 3. Wing. — 1. Carpophthoromyia debeckeri. — 2. C. litterata (female). — 3. C. litterata (male).