Rhagoletis obsoleta Hering, 1936

Korneyev, V. A., Mishustin, R. I. & Korneyev, S. V., 2017, The Carpomyini Fruit Flies Diptera: Tephritidae Of Europe Caucasus And Middle East: New Records Of Pests With Improved Keys, Vestnik Zoologii 51 (6), pp. 453-470 : 467

Rhagoletis obsoleta Hering, 1936 ( figs 5 , 7; 7 , 1 )

Rhagoletis cerasi f. obsoleta Hering, 1936: 182 ; Rhagoletis obsoleta: Rohdendorf, 1961: 182 . — Rhagoletis cerasi (in synonymy): Norrbom et al., 1999: 201; Merz & Korneyev (2004) (partly).

Material. Ukraine: Mykolaiv: Myhiia , 48.00 N, 30.58 E, swept from Lonicera , 23.06.2009 , 1 Ơ (S. &

V. Korneyev) ( SIZK).

H o s t p l a n t. Lonicera sp. ( Kandybina, 1977) .

Remarks. This species was briefly described by Hering (1936) as a form of R. cerasi without the accessory dark crossband on the wing and in a comparison with R. reducta Hering from northeastern China. Subsequently Rohdendorf used Rhagoletis obsoleta as the valid name for a single specimen from the Voronezh Region of southwestern Russia. the name became available and then used in synonymy with R. cerasi but without sound proofs. All the known records ( Hering, 1936; Rodendorf, 1961; current paper) are based on single specimens collected together with numerous R. cerasi or also with R. flavicincta on Lonicera bushes. It shows indirectly that the specimens identified as R. obsoleta are merely the dark morph of R. cerasi with the accessory band completely fused with the subapical crossband. All of them have a very narrow hyaline gap between the discal and subapical crossbands ( fig. 7 , 1 ) as if the accessory band were incorporated into the subapical crossband, as well as entirely black femora and abdominal tergites, which is common for many European populations of R. cerasi from Lonicera . In addition, many specimens of R. cerasi have the accessory band connected or partly fused to the subapical crossband. The synonymy of the two names is very highly probable, but further proof based on molecular analysis of specimens from the type locality of R. obsoleta (Berlin-Frohnau) is needed.

An alternative hypothesis that R. obsoleta could be a hybrid form of R. cerasi and R. flavicincta , though less probable, must be also checked, as all three nominal species occur on Lonicera in southwestern Ukraine and, according to Rohdendorf (1961), in southwestern European Russia (Voronezh).

Figures

Fig. 5. Rhagoletis spp. mesonotums (1–8), dorsal view, and head (2), lateral view: 1 — R. completa; 2 — R. bagheera; 3 — R. berberidis; 4 — R. cerasi; 5 — R. flavicincta; 6 — R. flavigenualis; 7 — R. obsoleta, Myhiia; 8 — R. sp. near obsoleta, Mt. Hermon.

Fig. 7. Rhagoletis spp. wings: 1 — R. obsoleta, Myhiia; 2 — R. sp. near obsoleta, Mt. Hermon; 3 — R. completa;

Fig. 1. Carpomyini. 1–2 — Carpomya pardalina, Kherson (1 — freshly emerged male; 2 — infested melon with holes in skin (cyan arrows) prepared by larvae for emerging of adults); 3 — Rhagoletis meigenii on Berberis fruit, Berlin; 4 — R. cerasi on Lonicera fruit, Kyiv, Grishko Botanical Gardens. Photos by R. I. Mishustin (1–2) and V. A. Korneyev (3–4).