Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) cucurbitae (Coquillett)

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 : 9

Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) cucurbitae (Coquillett)

Dacus cucurbitae Coquillett, 1899: 129 ; Froggatt, 1909: 84–85.

Bactrocera cucurbitae – Bezzi, 1913: 96–97.

Chaetodacus cucurbitae – Bezzi, 1916: 109-10; Hendel, 1915: 426, 1927: 28; Shiraki, 1933: 73–76.

Strumeta cucurbitae – Perkins, 1938: 127.

Dacus (Strumeta) cucurbitae – Hardy & Adachi, 1954: 164–165; Hardy, 1973: 38–40, 1974: 27–29.

Dacus (Zeugodacus) cucurbitae – Drew, 1973: 23–27; Hardy, 1977: 57, 1982: 203, 1983: 36.

Dacus aureus Tseng & Chu, 1982: 85 .

Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) cucurbitae – Drew 1989: 212; Norrbom et al., 1998: 102.

Dacus yuiliensis Tseng & Chu, 1992: 84 (new name for aureus preoccupied by May, 1951: 10).

Material examined. – BHUTAN: 1 male, Rimchu 1, 20 Sep.2000, coll. C. Dorji ; 1 male (17 Jul.2000), 1 male (2 Oct.2000), Tsirang, coll. S.D .; 1 male, Gelephu, Purana Bastey , 1 Feb.2005, coll. Maha Prasad & Karma Namgyel. All specimens attracted to cue lure. Specimens in NPPC and QDPI .

Diagnosis. – A medium sized species; face fulvous with large black oval spots; postpronotal lobes and notopleura yellow; scutum red-brown with or without fuscous markings; 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 entirely yellow; wing with a broad fuscous costal band paler between R 2+3 and R 4+5 and expanding into a large spot in apex of wing, pale infuscation along r-m crossvein and dark fuscous along dm-cu crossvein, a broad fuscous cubital streak; cells bc and c colourless; microtrichia in outer corner of cell c only; abdominal terga III-V red-brown with a ‘T’ pattern consisting of a narrow black transverse band across anterior margin of tergum III and a medium to broad medial longitudinal band over all three terga, anterolateral corners of terga IV and V fuscous to dark fuscous.

Attractant. – Cue lure.

Distribution. – Endemic to the region from Pakistan and India across southeast Asia. Now widespread across tropical and subtropical countries, including Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, northern Pacific islands, northern Africa and Egypt.

Hosts. – A wide range of wild and edible host fruits from many plant families and specialising in the Family Cucurbitaceae (see Allwood et al., 1999).

Remarks. – Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) cucurbitae (Coquillett) is one species of Dacinae that has been extensively studied, both ecologically and taxonomically. It is regarded as one of the major pest species within the Dacinae and has a worldwide distribution in the tropical and subtropical zones. See Drew (1989) for details. During the late 1990s, it spread across the Solomon Islands. It is readily distinguished in having basic red-brown on the scutum and abdomen with variable dark patterns, wing with the costal band expanded into a large spot at apex and r-m and dm-cu crossveins infuscated, abdominal terga III-V with a black ‘T’ pattern.