Rhagoletis freidbergi, Korneyev & I., 2019

Korneyev, Severyn V. & I., Valery A. Korneyev I., 2019, Description of a new species of the genus Rhagoletis Loew (Diptera: Tephritidae) from Nepal, with a key to species from Central and Southern Asia, Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 49 (2), pp. 87-97 : 93-95

Rhagoletis freidbergi n. sp.

( Figs 3, 20–24)

LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:B922E84D-5A2F-4A57-8854-43AC2E740E8F .

Etymology: This species is named in honour of Dr Amnon Freidberg, who collected the type specimen, in recognition of his contributions to the study of fruit flies worldwide.

Diagnosis: The new species can be easily separated from other Rhagoletis species by the following combination of characters: thorax yellow with yellow microtrichose mesonotum bearing black lyrate pattern; yellow setulae and black setae; abdomen yellow with black syntergite 1+2 and one pair of sublateral spots on tergites 3–6. It is similar to the Old World species R. alternata , R. caucasica , R. meigenii , R. nakaoi , R. rumpomaculata , R. rohdendorfi , R. samojlovitshae and R. yasudai in having a mostly yellow body and wing pattern with five crossbands ( Fig. 3), including subbasal, discal, accessory costal, subapical, and anterior apical bands ( Fig. 1). Differing from the other species as given in the key above.

This species is believed to belong in the group of species associated with Berberis spp. (the meigenii group sensu Kandybina 1977). It fits close to R. samojlovitshae , sharing the mostly reddish yellow body colour and first flagellomere apically pointed, differing in having a lyrate black pattern on the mesonotum and abdominal tergites 3–6 with black sublateral spots. In R. samojlovitshae , the mesonotum is at most diffusely darkened to brown on the posterior half anterior of the scutum, and the dark spots on the abdominal tergites are subrectangular and submedial, separated by a yellow medial vitta.

Description: Female. Head ( Fig. 21): yellow, with black ocellar triangle; length: height: width ratio = 1:1.3:1.7. Frons parallel sided, 1.5× wider than eye, 1.1× longer than wide, matt yellow, sparsely white microsetulose; frontal plates matt, finely and sparsely yellow microsetulose. Face 1.2× as high as narrowest distance between eyes; with low facial carina and shallow antennal grooves. Flagellomere 1 dorsoapically pointed, twice as long as wide; arista black except basal 0.2, brownish yellow, micropubescent, longest rays much shorter than arista width at base. Occiput entirely yellow, without dark pattern, silvery microtrichose posterior to medial vertical seta and at margins of genae, sparsely brown setulose at eye level and pale yellow setulose ventrally, with 7–8 supracervical setae on each side. Gena matt yellow, with short brownish yellow genal seta and several setulae posteroventrally, 0.27× as high as eye and 0.85× as high as flagellomere 1 length; anteroventrally with 12–13 very short and fine, yellowish peristomal setulae. Mouthparts capitate; palp yellow, 0.75× as long as flagellomere 1. Frontal, orbital, ocellar, vertical and postocular setae black: 3 frontal setae on left and 4 on right side; 1 reclinate orbital seta; one ocellar seta, half as long as medial vertical seta; lateral vertical seta 0.75× as long as medial vertical seta; 6–7 postocular setae, 0.1–0.2× as long as medial vertical seta. Postocellar and postvertical seta brownish yellow, 0.3× and 0.1× as long as medial vertical seta, respectively.

Thorax ( Fig. 22) yellow, with black setae; scutum yellow setulose, densely white microtrichose, with black lyrate pattern partly hidden by microtrichiae; scutellum subshining yellow, non­microtrichose, with 2–3 fine yellowish submarginal setulae on each side; mediotergite entirely black, without median yellow vitta, sparsely whitish microtrichose, subshining, with entirely bare posteromedial spot; 2 pairs of short brown scapular setae; dorsocentral seta aligned with anterior supra-alar seta, acrostichal prescutellar seta strong, at level of intra-alar seta; 2 pairs of scutellar setae, apical one 0.8× as long as basal seta; 1 postpronotal, 2 subequal notopleural, 1 intra-alar, 1 postalar, 1 anepisternal, 1 katepisternal, and 1 anepimeral setae; scutellum slightly convex.

Legs yellow, brown setose and setulose, non-thickened; hind femur subapically with 1–3 longer, dark setae on anteroventral and 3–4 longer setulae on anterodorsal surface.

Wing pattern as in Fig. 3. Subbasal band pale brown, broken into 3 spots: at humeral crossband, in base of cell br, and at Cu 2 and A 1 junction; discal band broad, entire, reaching from pterostigma to middle of cell cu 1; accessory costal band present; subapical band complete; anterior apical band narrowly separated from subapical band by hyaline spot at apex of vein R 2+3; posterior apical band strongly reduced to short brown stump connected to subapical band at vein R 4+5 and small dark spot on vein M. Calypters creamy, white ciliate. Haltere yellow.

Abdomen (not dissected): tergites shining, yellow (tergites 1–3) or brown (tergites 3–6) setulose and black setose laterally, tergites 5 and 6 also with black setae on posterior margins; syntergite 1+2 mostly black, with yellow posterior margin (note: base of abdomen is full of pitchy-black internal tissue obscuring actual colouration of cuticle); tergites 3–6 sublaterally with round black spots isolated by equally wide yellow interspaces from lateral margins ( Fig. 23). Oviscape dorsally convex, pale brown, darkened basally and apically, brown setulose, ventrally 1.5× as long as dorsally, with darkened, Y­ or T­shaped desclerotized area ventrally; eversible membrane with dorsal taeniae fused posteriorly; aculeus (not dissected, almost entirely exposed) moderately narrow, in cross section more cylindrical than flattened. Spermathecae not examined.

Male unknown.

Measurements: Female. Body length, 5.0 mm; wing length, 4.3 mm, costal cell length, 0.9 mm; aculeus length, 0.8 mm; aculeus length / costal cell length, 0.9.

Holotype: ♀ “ Nepal: Sundarijal [27°48'N 85°25'E] / 3 May 1980 / Amnon Freidberg” (SMNHTAU).

Host plant: Unknown.

Remarks. This species is morphologically similar to the Central Asian R. samojlovitshae (Rohdendorf) and apparently belongs in the group of species associated with Berberis spp. This group includes R. berberidis , R. caucasica , R. chumsanica , R. kurentsovi (Rohdendorf) , R. magniterebra , R. meigenii , R. rohdendorfi , R. samojlovitshae , and corresponds to the meigenii group of species recognized by Kandybina (1977) based on larval morphology and “Clade IV” of Hulbert (2018), a clearly monophyletic cluster supported by both molecular and larval and adult morphological data, as well as by the host-plant association. The included species are mostly specialized for feeding within the seeds rather than fleshy part of the fruit (Kandybina 1977). The adults are also similar in having a usually yellowish body (except R. berberidis ) and a moderately or (in R. magniterebra ) very long, narrow, needle­like aculeus as well as a narrow glans on the phallus (see Korneyev & Merz 1997: figs 8–11).