Dacus (Lophodacus) nairobensis White

White, Ian M. & Goodger, Kim F. M., 2009, African Dacus (Diptera: Tephritidae); New Species and Data, with Particular Reference to the Tel Aviv University Collection, Zootaxa 2127, pp. 1-49 : 30

Dacus (Lophodacus) nairobensis White

Dacus nairobensis White, 2006: 94

Material: TANZANIA: 1 male, 1 female, Same, Rt.B1, 8 – 16.ix.1992, A. Freidberg ( TAU).

Remarks. White (2006) tentatively placed D. nairobensis in the Mulgens group of sg. Didacus , because of its lack of an anterior notopleural seta, despite its lack of a complete covering of microtrichia in the narrow subbasal section of cell br. Discovery of a female shows that the aculeus lacks torsion and this species is therefore not a member of the Mulgens group. The general appearance of this species is astonishingly like that of D. apoxanthus , notably the unusual abdomen patterning. The reduced covering of microtrichia in the narrow subbasal part of cell br is also typical of sg. Lophodacus (although complete absence is more typical) and D. nairobensis is therefore transferred to that subgenus. However, it differs from D. apoxanthus in the presence of a pecten and the lack of any enlargement of the costagial setae. Note that although White (2006) correctly stated that the costal band is complete, these additional specimens indicate that it can be so narrow as to be mistaken for absent (allowed for in revised key; revised couplet 212).