Taxonomy
Valid name:
Bactrocera (
Bactrocera)
bryoniae (Tryon, 1927)
Preferred common name: lollypop climber fly
Synonyms:
Chaetodacus bryoniae (original combination in Tryon, 1927)
Dacus bryoniae (subsequent combination in Hardy, 1951)
Strumeta bryoniae (subsequent combination in Perkins, 1937)
Morphology-based identification
The Australian and New Guinean
Bactrocera bryoniae is very similar to the closely related Solomon Island
B. geminosimulata but can be distinguished by the lighter fuscous tinge of the costal band, a narrow anal streak and the largely to entirely black abdomen, whereas the abdomen in
B. bryoniae is orange-brown with a narrow black (
dorsalis-like) 'T'-shaped pattern (
Leblanc et al. 2021Leblanc et al. 2021:
Leblanc L, Tsatsia F, Doorenweerd C, 2021. Novel lures and COI sequences reveal cryptic new species of Bactrocera fruit flies in the Solomon Islands (Diptera, Tephritidae, Dacini). ZooKeys 1057: 49–103. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1057.68375). A 'spot' character for both
B. bryoniae and
B. geminosimulata is the light-orange infuscation of the entire wing.
Molecular identification
COI sequence data can be used to reliably identify
B. bryoniae. Its sister species is
B. geminosimulata (
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
Bactrocera bryoniae has been recorded from New Guinea and Australia, its native range is unclear.
Further information
Bactrocera bryoniae is reported as a "category C" pest of banana and chili pepper in
Vargas et al. (2015)Vargas et al. (2015):
Vargas RI, Pinero JC, Leblanc L, 2015. An overview of pest species of Bactrocera fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) and the integration of biopesticides with other biological approaches for their management with a focus on the pacific region. Insects 6: 297–318. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects6020297. A category C pest is there defined as "relatively minor oligophagous or specialist fruit or cucurbit pests". The first host it was bred from was lollypop climber (
Diplocyclos palmatus; formerly
Bryoniae palmata).
