Bactrocera (Bactrocera) carambolae Drew & Hancock, 1994

Drew, R. A. I. & Hancock, D. L., 2022, Biogeography, Speciation and Taxonomy within the genus Bactrocera Macquart with application to the Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) complex of fruit flies (Diptera Tephritidae: Dacinae), Zootaxa 5190 (3), pp. 333-360 : 346-347

Bactrocera (Bactrocera) carambolae Drew & Hancock

Bactrocera (Bactrocera) carambolae Drew & Hancock, 1994: 11 ; Norrbom et al., 1998: 89; Drew & Romig, 2013: 61. Holotype in BMNH.

Common name: Carambola Fruit Fly.

Definition: Face fulvous with a pair of medium-sized oval black spots; postpronotal lobes and notopleura yellow; scutum black with pale lateral margins; broad parallel-sided lateral postsutural yellow vittae ending at or behind ia. seta; medial postsutural yellow vitta absent; anepisternal (mesopleural) stripe reaching midway between anterior margin of notopleuron and anterior npl. seta dorsally; scutellum yellow with a narrow dark basal band; legs with femora fulvous and with a large preapical dark spot on outer surface of fore femora in some specimens, tibiae dark fuscous; wing with cells bc and c colourless, microtrichia in outer corner of call c only, a narrow fuscous costal band overlapping R 2+3 and expanding slightly beyond apex of this vein across apex of R 4+5, a narrow fuscous anal streak, supernumerary lobe of medium development; abdominal terga III-V orange-brown with a dark ‘T’ pattern consisting of a narrow transverse band across anterior margin of tergum III that widens to cover lateral margins, a medium width medial longitudinal band over all three terga, a dark rectangular pattern on anterolateral corners of tergum IV, anterolateral corners of tergum V dark fuscous, ceromata on tergum V orange-brown, abdominal sterna dark fuscous to black.

Distribution: Andaman Islands, Southern Thailand, Southern Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, East Malaysia, Indonesia. Adventive in French Guyana, Guyana, Surinam and NE Brazil. Recently recorded from Cambodia and Bangladesh ( Leblanc et al., 2015; 2019).

Hosts: A major pest species with a preference for Averrhoa carambola L. See Allwood et al. (1999) for recorded host plants. The host range in Surinam and Guyana, a region into which B. carambolae was introduced, matches that recorded in South-East Asia ( van Sauers-Muller, 2005).

Attractant: Methyl eugenol.

Comments: Generally, B. carambolae can be separated from the other dorsalis complex pest species in possessing the costal band broader apically and a broad medial longitudinal black band on abdominal terga III-V. Based on the mitochondrial genes COI and ND5, B. carambolae is separate from B. dorsalis , B. occipitalis and B. papayae ( Drew & Romig, 2013) . It also possesses distinct chemical components in the male pheromones ( Drew & Hancock, 1994).