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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Systematic Entomology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #347606
Research Project: Systematics of Flies of Importance in Agroecosystems and the Environment

Location: Systematic Entomology Laboratory

Title: A global checklist of the 933 fruit fly species in the tribe Dacini (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Author
item DOORENWEERD, CAMIEL - University Of Hawaii
item LEBLANC, LUC - University Of Idaho
item Norrbom, Allen
item SAN JOSE, MICHAEL - University Of Hawaii
item RUBINOFF, DANIEL - University Of Hawaii

Submitted to: ZooKeys
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/14/2017
Publication Date: 1/17/2018
Citation: Doorenweerd, C., Leblanc, L., Norrbom, A.L., San Jose, M., Rubinoff, D. 2018. A global checklist of the 933 fruit fly species in the tribe Dacini (Diptera: Tephritidae). ZooKeys. 730:17-54.

Interpretive Summary: The family of true fruit flies includes numerous major agricultural pests throughout the world. To effectively communicate about these flies, it is essential that scientists and regulatory agencies know the correct name for each species. To devise effective regulations for trade and prevent the introduction of pests to the United States, it is critical for regulatory agencies such as APHIS to have good knowledge of the valid names of all fruit flies throughout the world. This checklist contributes such information for a large group (tribe Dacini) that contains the majority of the most important pest species. This information will also be valuable to other scientists studying the ecology, biology or other aspects of these flies.

Technical Abstract: The correct application of the scientific names of species is neither easy nor trivial. Mistakes can lead to the wrong interpretation of research results or, when pest species are involved, inappropriate regulations and limits on trade, and possibly quarantine failures that permit the invasion of new pest species. Names are particularly challenging to manage when groups of organisms encompass a large number of species, when different workers employ different philosophical views, or when species are in a state of taxonomic flux. The fruit fly tribe Dacini is a species-rich radiation within Tephritidae and contains around a fifth of all known species in the family. About 10% of the 933 currently recognized species are pests of commercial fruits and vegetables, precipitating quarantines and trade embargos. Authoritative species lists consist largely of scattered regional treatments and outdated online resources. The checklist presented here is the first global overview of valid species names for the Dacini in almost two decades, and includes new lure records. By publishing this list both in paper and digitally, we aim to provide a resource for those studying fruit flies as well as researchers studying components of their impact on agriculture. The list is largely a consolidation of previous works, but following 35 the results from recent phylogenetic work, we transfer one subgenus and eight species to different genera: members of the Bactrocera subgenus Javadacus Hardy, considered to belong to the Zeugodacus group of subgenera by Hancock and Drew (2017), are transferred to genus Zeugodacus; Bactrocera pseudocucurbitae White 1999, stat. rev., is transferred back to Bactrocera from Zeugodacus; Zeugodacus arisanicus Shiraki 1933, stat. rev., is transferred back to Zeugodacus from Bactrocera; and Z. brevipunctus (David & Hancock 2017), comb. nov.; Z. javanensis (Perkins 1938), comb. nov.; Z. montanus (Hardy 1983), comb. nov.; Z. papuaensis (Malloch 1939), comb. nov.; Z. scutellarius (Bezzi 1916), comb. nov.; Z. semisurstyli (Drew & Romig 2013), comb. nov.; and Z. trilineatus (Hardy 1955), comb. nov. are transferred from Bactrocera to Zeugodacus.