Bactrocera (Bactrocera) divenderi Maneesh, Hancock & Prabhakar

Singh, Maneesh Pal & Hancock, David Lawrence, 2025, Two new species of genus Bactrocera Macquart (Diptera: Tephritidae: Dacinae: Dacini) from northern Himalayas and new records of host plants, distribution or variation in three other species in India, Zootaxa 5666 (2), pp. 175-194 : 185-186

Bactrocera (Bactrocera) divenderi Maneesh, Hancock & Prabhakar

This species was recorded previously as a pest of peaches and nectarines and presumed to be monophagous on Prunus persica (L.) ( Maneesh et al., 2022b); however, during a survey conducted during 2023, it was recorded from several temperate crops from farmers’ fields as well as markets of Himachal Pradesh (figure 8). Among the major fruit crops, it was noted that B. divenderi successfully bred on apples ( Malus x domestica (Suckow)) , plums ( Prunus domestica L.) and apricots ( P. armeniaca (Scopoli)) , but its intensity was still lower than on peaches and nectarines. It is well adapted to temperate climates and its presence in Bhutan and the temperate region of Pakistan ( Maneesh et al., 2022b) certainly clarifies its association with temperate crops. Previously, Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) was presumed to be ‘The Peach Fruit Fly’ but the occurrence of B. divenderi on a large scale in the Himalayan region gives it the title of ‘Temperate Peach Fruit Fly’. Despite its mass occurrence and trapping (avg. 47.28±0.89 & 51.11±0.62 males per week during 2022 & 2023 respectively (UHF Nauni Solan, unpublished data)) in the field we are still not able to successfully rear it in the laboratory. Adults were reared but barely feed in cages and die soon after emergence. It thrives well in the field due to its temperate adaptation but somehow it is not able to breed within cages. Its occurrence on apple is certainly concerning and requires further management studies as well as its ecology to prevent its further spread.

Note: Bactrocera divenderi misidentified as B. nigrofemoralis by Drew et al. (2007) from Bhutan and by Parajuli et al. (2023, cf. fig.2b) from Nepal; however narrower and longer postsutural vittae clearly indicates B. divenderi as described by Maneesh et al. (2022a). Bactrocera divenderi is well distributed in the Himalayas and northern India and often misidentified as B. nigrofemoralis but can be easily differentiated by postsutural lateral vittae reaching intra-alar seta & by genitalia (see Maneesh et al., 2022a).

Molecular Diagnosis: COI gene Accession no. OK103980 & OK103987 submitted in GeneBank during 2021. Sequences were 94-96 % similar to many B. nigrofemoralis such as HQ446519 & MG683514 but distinct at 12.38% pair-wise distance to all submitted sequences of B. nigrofemoralis .