Dacus (Mellesis) viraktamathi David & Hancock, 2020

David, K. J., Sachin, K. & Hancock, D. L., 2020, Two New Species And A New Record Of Dacus Fabricius (Diptera: Tephritidae) From India, Zootaxa 4743 (4), pp. 553-560 : 557-558

Dacus (Mellesis) viraktamathi David & Hancock , sp. n. ( Figures 9−16 )

Description: Male

Head: Higher than long, frons reddish brown with two frontal setae, single orbital seta, ocellar triangle black devoid of ocellar seta, postocellar seta present, lateral and medial vertical setae present. Gena yellow/fulvous with a black spot and seta; 3 thin postocular setae, all black; occiput black. Face reddish brown with two separate black spots towards lower margin and a medial spot slightly ventral to antennal base. Antennal segments fuscous; scape as long as pedicel, combined length of scape and pedicel longer than length of face.

Scutum: Reddish brown, without lateral and medial postsutural vittae; with broad black patches posterior to transverse suture. Yellow markings as follows: along base of transverse suture, postpronotal lobe, notopleuron, narrow anepisternal stripe as broad as notopleuron, dorsal 0.75 of katatergite, and entire scutellum. Pleuron predominantly black except for anepisternal stripe and yellow part of katatergite. Chaetotaxy: 1 scapular seta, 1 anterior notopleural seta, 1 posterior notopleural seta, 1 postsutural supra-alar seta, 1 intra-alar, 1 postalar seta, and 1 (apical) scutellar seta. Subscutellum black with a longitudinal brown band.

Legs: Predominantly fuscous, all femora reddish brown with basal black markings; fore and mid femur with basal 0.2 black; hind femur with basal 2/3 black. Tibia reddish brown, basitarsus of all legs fulvous/ yellow, rest of tarsal segments black.

Wing: Length 7.48 mm, dimidiate, with broad costal band covering cells bc, c, sc, r 1, r 2+3, br, and proximal half of cell r 4+5. Anal streak absent.

Abdomen: Reddish brown, club-shaped with tergites fused. Tergite I as long as broad with median stripe, tergite 2 with a crescent-shaped black marking, tergites 3-5 each with basal black band. Pecten present on tergite 3. All sternites black, sternite V with shallow posterior emargination.

Male genitalia: Epandrium dark-brown to black, square-shaped; proctiger much smaller than epandrium; lateral surstylus broad (0.1 mm) with posterior lobe 4-5 times longer than anterior lobe. Medial surstylus shorter than lateral surstylus, with well-developed prensisetae. Phallus elongate (3.00 mm), coiled, with sclerotised glans of phallus (0.63 mm) and patterned acrophallus.

Material examined: Holotype, ♂, INDIA, Himachal Pradesh, Shimla, IARI Regional Station, Totu , 18. viii.2019. Coll. David K. J. collected on Vitis vinifera ( NBAIR).

Etymology: This species is named after Dr. C. A. Viraktamath, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, in recognition of his contributions in insect taxonomy.

Remarks: Dacus viraktamathi is similar to D. formosanus (Tseng & Chu) and D. trimacula (Wang) in facial markings, possessing a broad costal band almost confluent with vein M basally, quadrate abdominal tergite I, fuscous anatergite and mostly yellow katatergite. It can be differentiated from the former by the elongate posterior lobe of the lateral surstylus, reddish brown, paler scutum with broad quadrate black patches posterior to the transverse suture, abdomen with tergite III reddish brown with a narrow, black basal band, and the postpronotal lobes concolorous to the reddish brown scutum. It can be differentiated from D. trimacula by the absence of medial longitudinal black band on scutum, the costal band reaching the middle of cell r 4+5 and the reddish brown abdomen with narrow basal bands.

Figures

FIGURES 9-16. Holotype male of Dacus (Mellesis) viraktamathi David & Hancock sp.n. 9, head; 10, scutum; 11, thorax (lateral view) and legs; 12, abdomen; 13, wing; 14, epandrium, surstyli and proctiger (lateral view); 15, epandrium and surstyli (posterior view); 16, glans of phallus.