Dacus ciliatus

Taxonomy

Valid name: Dacus (Didacus) ciliatus Loew, 1862
Preferred common name: lesser pumpkin fly
Synonyms:
   Dacus ciliatus (original combination in Loew, 1862)
   Leptoxyda ciliata (subsequent combination in Malloch, 1932)
   Didacus ciliatus (subsequent combination in Perkins, 1937)
Dacus sexmaculatus Walker, 1871 (junior synonym)
Dacus sigmoides Coquillett, 1901 (junior synonym)
Dacus brevistylus Bezzi, 1908 (junior synonym)
Dacus apoxanthus var. decolor Bezzi, 1924 (junior synonym)
Tridacus mallyi Munro, 1925 (unavailable name)
Dacus insistens Curran, 1927 (junior synonym)
Psilodacus decolor Perkins, 1937 (junior synonym)
Dacus cocciniae Premlata and Singh, 1988 (junior synonym)

Morphology-based identification

Dacus ciliatus can be identified reliably using morphological characters. Spot characters are the overall reddish body and abdomen with two lateral black marks on tergite 3.

Molecular identification

COI sequence data can be used to identify Dacus ciliatus (Doorenweerd et al. 2024Doorenweerd et al. 2024:
Doorenweerd C, San Jose M, Leblanc L, Barr N, Geib SM, Chung AYC, Dupuis JR, Ekayanti A, Fiegalan E, Hemachandra KS, Hossain MA, Huang C, Hsu Y, Morris KY, Maryani A. Mustapeng A, Niogret J, Pham TH, Thi Nguyen N, Sirisena UGAI, Todd T, Rubinoff D, 2024. Towards a better future for DNA barcoding: Evaluating monophyly‐ and distance‐based species identification using COI gene fragments of Dacini fruit flies. Molecular Ecology Resources 24: e13987. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.13987).

Distribution

Dacus ciliatus is widespread in Africa, across the Middle East and reaches East into Bangladesh. Its presumed native range is in (part of) Africa; populations outside of Africa are considered invasions.

Further information

Dacus ciliatus is one of the main pests of Cucurbitaceae in Africa and can occasionally be found on tomato (Solanum spp.) and pepper (Capsicum spp.).