Zeugodacus triangularis

Taxonomy

Valid name: Zeugodacus (Zeugodacus) triangularis (Drew 1968)
Preferred common name: triangle fruit fly
Synonyms:
   Asiadacus triangularis (original combination in Drew, 1968)
   Bactrocera triangularis (subsequent combination 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.)
   Dacus triangularis (subsequent combination in Drew, 1972)

Morphology-based identification

Zeugodacus triangularis can be identified reliably using morphological characters. Spot characters are the triangle-shaped yellow mark on the scutum, absence of lateral yellow vittae, and a unique wing pattern.

Molecular identification

COI sequence data can be used to identify Zeugodacus triangularis. It is closely related to Z. univittatus and Z. strigifinis (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

Zeugodacus triangularis is only known from New Guinea, which is its presumed native range.

Further information

Zeugodacus triangularis is reported as a "category C" pest of Cucurbitaceae flowers 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".