Neoceratitis albiseta, Meyer, Marc De & Freidberg, Amnon, 2012

Meyer, Marc De & Freidberg, Amnon, 2012, Taxonomic revision of the fruit fly genus Neoceratitis Hendel (Diptera: Tephritidae), Zootaxa 3223, pp. 24-39 : 27

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.3223.1.2
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5887591
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/CD28878E-FF9C-E505-76EA-FC0F9F156708
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Neoceratitis albiseta
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Neoceratitis albiseta sp. nov.

Figs 1 View FIGURE 1 a, 2a, 3a, 5a, 6a.

Type material. Holotype Ƥ, MADAGASCAR, Port Dauphin, Taolanaro , 18-23.IV.1991, A. Freidberg & F. Kaplan ( TAUI).

Female. Body length: 2.80 mm; wing length: 2.65 mm.

Head. Antenna dark yellow, first flagellomere about twice as long as wide; arista short pubescent with hairs shorter than basal width. Frons dark yellow. Face yellow-white, gena ventral to eye darker yellow; occiput dorsal fourth dark brown, ventral half yellow-white.

Thorax. Postpronotal lobe black-brown in anterior half, posteriorly with whitish crescent, extending to seta. Scutum ratio 0.9; shining black-brown, silver microtrichia in typical pattern except more reduced than in other species ( Fig.1 View FIGURE 1 a); dark pilosity except where silver microtrichosity with silvery setulae. Pleura brown, anepisternum white except ventral margin; katatergite and anatergite whitish, posteroventral margin of laterotergite narrowly brown; one white anepisternal seta. Scutellum ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 a) swollen with concave margin near basal seta; black brown, subbasally with whitish band, interrupted medially.

Legs. Mostly yellow; mid and hind femora yellowish-brown.

Wing. With discal, subapical, anterior apical and posterior apical brown bands ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 a); all well developed. Basal brownish part largely consisting of partly confluent patches and streaks, separated from discal band in basal part of cell cu and apical part of cell bm; otherwise partly confluent through dark spots. Subapical band connected with discal and anterior apical bands. Anterior and posterior apical bands connected. R-M ratio 0.95.

Abdomen. Shining black-brown. Tergites 2 and 4 almost completely covered with silvery microtrichia, only narrow anterior margin with brownish microtrichia except tergite 4 where silvery microtrichia extends to anterior margin. Oviscape about half as long as abdominal tergites 1-5 jointly, shining black-brown. Aculeus ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 a) orange, flattened; four times as long as wide; apically evenly tapered ( Fig. 6 View FIGURE 6 a), simply pointed.

Male. Unknown.

Distribution. Madagascar.

Hosts. Unknown. This species was swept from Lycium sp. ( Solanaceae ).

Comments. This species fits the generic description in most characters and largely resembles C. lycii . The microtrichia pattern is not as extensive as in most other species. The white transverse band on the scutellum is only interrupted in the median part and shows no constrictions sublaterally as is usually the case in C. lycii specimens. The main distinctive character is the presence of a white anepisternal seta which is unique within the genus (black in all other species). There are also a number of small differences in the wing banding (see Figs 3 View FIGURE 3 a and 3f) with the brownish base separated from the discal band in basal part of cell cu and apical part of cell bm by an hyaline region (largely confluent in C. lycii ), the posterior apical band being as broad as the subapical band (narrower in C. lycii ) and the base of the subapical band sinuous in shape (gradually curved in C. lycii ).