Ceratitis (Ceratalaspis) sawahilensis De Meyer & Virgilio, 2016

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 : 13-15

Ceratitis (Ceratalaspis) sawahilensis De Meyer & Virgilio sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:F57EF53D-53E8-4EBF-A268-8FB819DBEEB4

Fig. 4

Etymology

The name is considered as an adjective derived from a geographical name, the Arabic word ‘sawahil’ being the plural of ‘sahil’, which means border or coast and refers to the Swahili Coast, which was recognized as a historical cultural and geographic entity comprising the localities of Zanzibar and Mkuranga, where the type series was collected.

Material examined

Holotype

TANZANIA: Ƌ, Mkuranga , Mwanambaya, 21 Jan. 2001, Z. Seguni ( RMCA).

Paratypes

TANZANIA: 1 Ƌ, same date and locality as holotype; 1 Ƌ, 1 ♀, Zanzibar, 7 Feb. 2000, Z. Seguni (1 ♀ barcoded, see Table 1 ; Supplementary file), ( RMCA); 1 Ƌ ( Fig. 4f ), Magombero Forest, 14–15 Sep. 2009, T. Pape & S.A. Marshall ( ZMUC).

Description

Male

BODY LENGTH. 5.01 (4.80–5.28); wing length: 5.04 (4.80–5.20) mm.

HEAD ( Fig. 4a ). Antenna yellow-orange, first flagellomere in lateral view 3 times as long as wide, obtuse or with short acute tip dorsoapically. Arista medium pubescent, ventral proximal rays at most 3 times width of arista at base. Two frontal setae, thinner than, and subequal in length to, anterior orbital seta; two orbital setae, anterior orbital longer than posterior one; ocellar seta at least 4 times as long as ocellar triangle; postocellar seta black, shorter than lateral vertical seta. Frons convex, not protruding in lateral view; yellow-white, in between frontal setae more yellowish. Genal seta and genal setulae dark brown to reddish-pale. Face and occiput yellowish-white, latter slightly darker dorsally.

THORAX ( Fig. 4 b–c). Postpronotal lobe white, without black middle spot around base of postpronotal seta. Scutum ground colour shining yellow-brown to brown, sometimes with more orange tinge, with greyish pilosity and microtrichosity; with slightly darker streaks but no distinct black spots, except paired prescutellar spot extending anteriorly to dorsocentral seta, posteriorly with paired white to yellow prescutellar semi-circular marking, separated by yellowish-white area in between; at mesal end of transverse suture with shining brownish to blackish spot. Setae black. Pleura yellow to brownishyellow. Anepisternum dorsal half white, ventral half yellow; completely covered with pale pilosity, one anepisternal seta. Anatergite and katatergite white. Scutellum yellowish-white to white, sometimes with yellowish tinge; apical margin with three separate black spots, extending to level of basal scutellar setae; with distinct brown-black spots basally, sometimes less pronounced and only darker yellowbrown colour. Subscutellum black.

LEGS. Slender; yellow; with dispersed mixed pale and dark pilosity. Forefemur ventral spine-like setae black along distal 0.50, basally more pale.

WING ( Fig. 4e ). Markings yellow to yellow-brown. Anterior apical band, subapical band, discal band and posterior apical band present, latter sometimes only as a trace; anterior apical band touching discal band; subapical band and posterior apical band isolated. Cross-vein R-M situated at or basal to midlength of anterior margin of cell dm. Brown streaks and spots present in basal cells.

ABDOMEN ( Fig. 4d ). Ground colour yellow. Tergites 2 and 4 more greyish along posterior half; tergites 3 and 5 with, respectively, posterior and anterior margin narrowly more darkly yellow. With mixed pale and dark pilosity.

Female

As male. Oviscape shorter than preabdomen. Aculeus ( Fig. 4 g–h) about 8–9 times longer than wide; apical part sinuous, tip blunt and with distinct indentation.

Distribution

Tanzania.

Host plants

Unknown.

Remarks

The relationship of C. sawahilensis sp. nov. to any of the other described Ceratitis species is not easily established. Although there is a slight partial darkening of the abdominal tergites 3 and 5, the male legs are without modifications. The neighbor-joining tree (Supplementary file) does not place it in any resolved cluster. We tentatively place it in the subgenus Ceratalaspis pending further clarifications on its subgeneric position.

Figures

Fig. 4. Ceratitis sawahilensis De Meyer & Virgilio sp. nov. a. Head and thorax, anterodorsal view. b. Thorax, lateral view. c. Thorax, dorsal view. d. Abdomen, dorsal view. e. Wing. f. Habitus image (credit: S.A. Marshall). g. Female aculeus. h. Aculeus tip. Scale bars: A–F = 1 mm; G–H = 0.1 mm.