Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) signata (Hering)

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 : 11

Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) signata (Hering)

Zeugodacus bezzianus f. signata Hering, 1941: 10 , male and female syntypes in BMNH; Norrbom et al., 1998: 104 as synonym of B. tau (Walker) .

Material examined. – BHUTAN: 5 males, Rimchu 2, 10 May.2000, coll. B.S. Fletcher ; 1 male, Tsirang, 10 Jul.2000 , coll. T.D. & S.D; 1 male, Suntalay , 28 Jun.2000, coll. S. Wangdi ; 1 male, Lingmethang 11km, 9 Jun.2001, coll. Brian Fletcher ; 1 male, Rimchu 1, 4 May.2000, coll. B.S. Fletcher ; 1 male, Rimchu 1, 7 Jun.2000, coll. C. Dorji et. al.; 1 male, Rimchu 1, 24 May.2000, coll. C. Dorji ; 1 male, Rimchu 1, 21 Jun.2000, coll. Nado et al. All specimens attracted to cue lure. Specimens in NPPC and QDPI .

Diagnosis. – A large species; face fulvous with a pair of medium sized oval black spots; postpronotal lobes and notopleura yellow; scutum orange-brown with extensive areas of black; lateral and medial postsutural vittae present; a yellow spot anterior to mesonotal suture; mesopleural stripe reaching midway between anterior margin of notopleuron and anterior npl. seta dorsally; scutellum yellow with a dark fuscous apical spot; wing with a narrow fuscous costal band overlapping R 2+3 and ending in a tau like spot in apex of wing, a moderately broad fuscous cubital streak; cells bc and c colourless; microtrichia in outer corner of cell c only; abdominal terga III-V fulvous except for a ‘T’ pattern consisting of a broad black transverse band across anterior margin of tergum III and a moderately broad medial longitudinal black band over all three terga, broad anterolateral black corners on terga IV and V.

Attractant. – Cue lure.

Distribution. – Sikkim. New record for Bhutan.

Hosts. – No known record.

Remarks. – Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) signata (Hering) in many characters resembles tau complex species. It is similar to Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) rubella (Hardy) in possessing extensive areas of red-brown on the scutum, 4 sc. setae, medial and lateral postsutural vittae, basic red-brown scutum, wings colourless except for costal band and cubital streak, costal band expanded into a spot at apex and lateral postsutural vittae reaching to or behind ia. setae. It differs from B. rubella in having a well developed supernumerary lobe in the male wing, costal band just overlapping R 2+3 (not almost to R 4+5) and apical spot in costal band around apex of R 4+5 (not reaching M). Within the tau complex, it is similar to Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) pubescens (Bezzi) in having a dark fuscous spot on the apex of the scutellum but differs in possessing dark fuscous spots on the apices of all femora and the apex of the aculeus needle shaped. In B. pubescens the femora are entirely fulvous and the apex of the aculeus trilobed. In studying large numbers of B. tau (Walker) specimens from across southeast Asia, none has been observed with a dark spot on the apex of the scutellum. This is not a pest species.