Ceratitis (Pardalaspis) serrata De Meyer, 1996

Meyer, Marc De, Mwatawala, Maulid, Copeland, Robert S. & Virgilio, Massimiliano, 2016, Description of new Ceratitis species (Diptera: Tephritidae) from Africa, or how morphological and DNA data are complementary in discovering unknown species and matching sexes, European Journal of Taxonomy 233, pp. 1-23 : 18-20

Ceratitis (Pardalaspis) serrata De Meyer, 1996

Fig. 6

Material examined

Holotype

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: ♀, Yangambi, 17 Nov. 1960, J.M. McGough ( TAU).

Non type material

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Masako, near Kisangani: 16 ƋƋ, 21 Mar. 2008; 11 ƋƋ, 28 Mar. 2008; 4 ƋƋ, 25 Apr. 2008; 5 ƋƋ, 4 Apr. 2008; 1 Ƌ, 2 May 2008, all methyl eugenol trap, J.-L. Juakaly ( RMCA); 1 ♀, Congo River Expedition, Bomane, 19–24 May 2010, cue lure trap, R. Emeleme & M. Virgilio ( RMCA).

Description

Male

HEAD ( Fig. 6 a–b). Antenna orange. First flagellomere in lateral view 2–3 times as long as wide, obtuse apically. Arista short pubescent, ventral proximal rays at most equal to width of arista at base. Two frontal setae, thinner than, and equal in length, to anterior orbital seta; two orbital setae, anterior orbital longer than posterior one; ocellar seta 3–4 times as long as ocellar triangle; postocellar seta black, shorter than lateral vertical seta. Frons flattened, slightly protruding in lateral view, completely covered with silvery shine. Genal seta and setulae black. Face orange, occiput yellowish.

THORAX ( Fig. 6 c–d). Postpronotal lobe greyish to greyish-yellow, without black middle spot around base of postpronotal seta. Scutum ground color greyish-brown, sometimes with golden orange tinge; with streaks and darker markings but without distinct spots except for darkish spot around prescutellar acrostichal seta, and pale prescutellar semi-circular marking along posterior margin near prescutellar acrostichal seta. Setae black; setulae mainly pale; black setulae restricted to area at mesal end of tranverse suture extending posteriorly to prescutellar acrostical and dorsocentral setae. Anepisternum ventral half brownish, dorsal half more greyish, completely covered with black pilosity, except for horizontal stripe below dorsal margin with white pilosity; three anepisternal setae. Anatergite and katatergite brownish. Scutellum dark yellowish, apical margin with three separate black spots, anteriorly extending anteriorly beyond basal scutellar setae; with two large roundish black spots basally. Subscutellum black.

LEGS. Slender; yellow-orange, midfemur more brownish; with dispersed and mainly black pilosity. Forefemur with ventral setae black.

WING. Markings dark brown. Anterior apical band, subapical band and discal band present, posterior apical band absent; anterior apical band touching discal band; subapical band isolated. Cross-vein R-M situated at midlength of cell dm. Brown streaks and spots present in basal cells.

ABDOMEN ( Fig. 6e ). Ground colour mainly greyish to pale orange; with darker spots on all tergites. With mixed pale and black pilosity.

Distribution

Congo (Democratic Republic).

Host plants

Unknown.

Remarks

Ceratitis serrata was originally described from a female collected in Yangambi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Trapping with methyl eugenol at Masako (near Kisangani and approx. 100 km east of Yangambi) in 2008 collected male specimens that did not match any of the known species within the subgenus Pardalaspis . Virgilio et al. (2011) reported a female specimen of C. serrata from Bomane along the Congo River, further west of Yangambi. DNA barcoding revealed that the COI sequences obtained from the male specimen from Masako (series of 21.III.2008 AccessID 13954, AB33598909) and the female specimen from Bomane (AccessID 15755, AB40159308) differed by a p-distance of only 0.5% (see Table 1 ; Supplementary file) with a large barcoding gap (corresponding to 7% similarity) separating C. serrata from the second closest match. It was therefore considered that the material from Masako represents the hitherto unknown male of C. serrata . Male specimens of C. serrata can be readily differentiated from other species within the subgenus Pardalaspis by the combination of the following characters: frons completely silvery shining; face uniform orange coloured; anterior margin of scutum same colour as middle part; anepisternum largely covered with black pilosity, base of scutellum with a pair of distinct black spots.

Figures

Fig. 6. Ceratitis serrata De Meyer, 1996. a. Head, frontal view. b. Head and thorax, anterodorsal view. c. Thorax, lateral view. d. Thorax, dorsal view. e. Abdomen, dorsal view. Scale bars: A = 0.5 mm; B–D = 1 mm.