Taxonomy
Valid name:
Bactrocera (
Bactrocera)
mucronis (Drew, 1971)
Preferred common name: None
Synonyms:
Dacus mucronis (original combination in Drew, 1971)
Bactrocera mueronis (misspelling in
Drew, 1989Drew, 1989:
Drew RAI, 1989. The tropical fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae: Dacinae) of the Australasian and Oceanian regions. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 1: 1–521.)
Morphology-based identification
Bactrocera mucronis can be identified reliably based on morphology. Spot characters are the abdomen pattern with black lateral markings but absence of a central dark line and lack of dark markings on the face.
Molecular identification
COI sequence data can be used to reliably identify
B. mucronis (
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 mucronis is only known from New Caledonia, which is its presumed native range.
Further information
Bactrocera mucronis is classified as a "category D" pest on guava and soursop 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 D pest is there defined as "species that have been occasionally bred from commercial/edible fruit or cucurbits".
