Ceratitis (Ceratalaspis) perseus, Meyer & Copeland, 2005

Meyer, Marc De & Copeland, Robert S., 2005, Description of new Ceratitis MacLeay (Diptera, Tephritidae) species from Africa, Journal of Natural History 39 (16), pp. 1283-1297 : 1291-1293

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00222930400004347

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/4424D512-B917-3447-FE9D-47CBF5E7FDF2

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Ceratitis (Ceratalaspis) perseus
status

sp. nov.

Ceratitis (Ceratalaspis) perseus View in CoL sp. nov.

( Figures 3 View Figures 1–5 , 6 View Figure 6 , 9 View Figures 7–11 , 14 View Figures 12–17 )

Diagnosis

Arista with medium long rays; frons yellow, without silvery microtrichosity; postpronotal lobe with distinct black spot; scutal pattern with distinct black markings; anepisternum yellow with upper half white, with one anepisternal seta; wing bands with subapical band separate, posterior apical band absent; male mid tibia with black feathering; abdomen without distinct spots, with grey band on tergites 2 and 4; aculeus tip with median step.

Description

Male. Head: antenna yellow to yellow-orange. First flagellomere three times as long as pedicel. Arista with medium long rays, longest dorsal rays about three times as long as basal width of arista; ventral rays shorter than dorsal rays basally. Frons yellow to pale yellow; with short scattered black and yellow setulae. Face white. Genal seta and setulae black, well developed.

Thorax: postpronotal lobe pale yellowish white; with black spot. Scutal pattern ( Figure 3 View Figures 1–5 ), ground colour yellow to dark orange, with distinct black markings, including median sutural spot, prescutellar markings white, separated by pale area; with golden microtrichosity and yellow pilosity. Scapular setae black. Scutellum white to yellow, basally with black spots, apically with three separate black spots, extending to basal third. Subscutellum black. Anepisternum yellow, upper half white, one anepisternal seta, setulae white to yellow.

Legs: yellow; setation yellow to orange. Fore femur with ventral setae mainly black; posteriorly with dense yellow to silvery pilosity. Mid leg ( Figure 6 View Figure 6 ), femur ventrally with few conspicuously longer yellow setulae along basal third; tibia with black feathering at apical outer half and inner two-fifths, area of tibia with feathering coloured black.

Wing: pattern as in Figure 9 View Figures 7–11 ; bands mainly yellowish with some brown patches. Anterior apical and discal bands largely but incompletely separated, narrowly joined; subapical band free; posterior apical band absent; crossvein R-M at, or just distal to, middle of discal medial cell.

Abdomen: yellow to orange; pilosity mixed yellow and black. Tergites 2 and 4 with pale grey band occupying posterior third of tergite. Tergite 5 with longer black setulae along posterior margin.

Female. As male except for the following characters. Frons only with short black setulae. Fore femur with less dense pilosity posteriorly; mid tibia without black feathering, completely yellow. Oviscape shorter than preabdomen. Aculeus eight times longer than wide, tip ( Figure 14 View Figures 12–17 ) with median step and lateral margin slightly sinuate.

Body length. 5.60 (4.80–6.20) mm.

Wing length. 5.35 (4.55–5.70) mm.

Type material

Holotype: „, Kenya, Coast Province, Shimba Hills, 24 April 2002, USDA sample 1902, reared ex fruits Pleiocarpa pycnantha , leg. R. S. Copeland. Holotype deposited in collection of NMK. Paratypes: 13 „„, 13♀♀, same data as holotype; 3 „„, 3♀♀, same locality as holotype, 23 April 2002, USDA sample 1957, reared ex fruits Pleiocarpa pycnantha ; Watamu, 2 „„, 5♀♀, 15 April 2000, USAID sample K500, reared ex fruits Hunteria zeylanica ; 1 „, 1♀, 16 May 2000, USAID sample 680, reared ex fruits Hunteria zeylanica ; 4 „„, 3♀♀, 9 February 2001, USDA sample 985, reared ex fruits Hunteria zeylanica ; Eastern Province , Ngaia Forest upper part, 115 „„, 89♀♀, 5 December 2003, USDA sample 2602, reared ex fruits Pleiocarpa pycnantha ; all leg. R. S. Copeland . Paratypes deposited in collections of NMK, KMMA, BMNH, TAMU, ICIPE and USNM .

Etymology

After the Greek mythological figure Perseus, who borrowed the God Hermes’ winged shoes when killing the Medusa.

Host plants

Reared from the fruits of Hunteria zeylanica (Retz.) Gardn. and Pleiocarpa pycnantha (K. Schum.) Stapf (both Apocynaceae ).

Remarks

This is an enigmatic species, showing characteristics of the subgenus Ceratalaspis , and apparently related to the stictica group as defined in De Meyer (1998). However, the male has secondary sexual characters typical for the subgenus Pterandrus in that the mid tibia has distinct black feathering (the only other Ceratalaspis species with feathering, C. neostictica De Meyer , has orange feathering on the mid tibia). C. perseus lacks, however, the black band on abdominal tergite 3 which is found in most Pterandrus species. C . perseus shows some affinities with C. brucei Munro. The latter is only known from the female holotype of which the aculeus tip is damaged. However, the general shape of the aculeus in the latter is different from that of C. perseus . In brucei it is slender, and gradually narrowing towards the apex, while in C. perseus it is much broader (cf. Figures 14 and 15 View Figures 12–17 ). Currently, we place this species in the subgenus Ceratalaspis . The species can be identified with the key provided by De Meyer (1998) given the following adjustment.

29 Wing pattern dark brown; mesonotum ash-grey........ roubaudi – Wing pattern yellow or yellow-brown; mesonotum with yellow-orange tinge. 29a

29a Male mid tibia with black feathering at apical outer half and inner two-fifths, area of tibia with feathering coloured black; female aculeus tip with median step................... perseus sp. n. – Male mid tibia without feathering, all pilosity yellow to orange; female aculeus tip either simply pointed or slightly bilobed, never with median step.... 30

USDA

United States Department of Agriculture

R

Departamento de Geologia, Universidad de Chile

NMK

National Museums of Kenya

KMMA

Koninklijk Museum voor Midden Afrika

TAMU

Texas A&M University

USNM

Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Diptera

Family

Tephritidae

Genus

Ceratitis

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