Diagnosis

Morphological – adult

Features include:

• Face fulvous with a pair of large oval black spots
• scutum black except dark red-brown along posterior margin and enclosing prsc. setae, below and behind lateral postsutural vittae, around mesonotal suture, around anterior margin of notopleura and inside postpronotal lobes
• postpronotal lobes and notopleura yellow
• mesopleural stripe reaching midway between anterior margin of notopleuron and anterior npl. seta dorsally
• broad parallel sided or subparallel lateral postsutural vittae ending at ia. seta (in some specimens the vittae end behind the ia. seta)
• medial postsutural vitta absent
• scutellum yellow
• legs with femora entirely fulvous, fore tibiae pale fuscous to fuscous, mid tibiae pale fuscous to fuscous basally tending paler apically, hind tibiae fuscous
• wings with cells bc and c colourless, microtrichia in outer corner of cell c only, a narrow fuscous costal band distinctly overlapping R2+3 and widening markedly across apex of wing, a narrow fuscous anal streak
• supernumerary lobe of medium development
• abdominal terga III-V with a narrow transverse black band across anterior margin of tergum III and expanding to cover lateral margins, dark fuscous to black rectangular markings anterolaterally on tergum IV which sometimes continue to cover posterolateral margins of this tergum, dark fuscous to black anterolateral corners on tergum V, a very broad medial longitudinal black band over all three terga, a pair of oval orange-brown shining spots on tergum V
• abdominal sterna dark coloured
• posterior lobe of male surstylus short
• female with apex of aculeus needle shaped (Drew and Romig 2013).

Morphological – larvae

Not available.

Molecular

Host Range

Allwood et al. 1999 host records are incomplete due to a lack of field host survey work through the area of distribution of the species (pers. comm. Drew 2010). Bactrocera occipitalis has been recorded on hosts from three families, Anacardiaceae, Myrtaceae and Rutaceae (Allwood et al. 1999).

Major commercial hosts (Allwood et al. 1999):

• Citrus microcarpa (musk lime)
• Mangifera indica (mango)
• Psidium guajava (guava)

Distribution

ASIA – Philippines, Borneo (Malaysian Sabah, Brunei, Indonesian Kalimantan) (Drew and Romig 2013).

Similar species

Similar to B. carambolae but differs in usually having subparallel vittae, no spot on the fore femora, a broader costal band distinctly overlapping R2+3, a very thick medial line and defined wraparound T or dark anterolateral corners on terga III-V (instead of rectangles on terga IV and sometimes V).

Similar to B. endiandrae but differs in having a thick medial line on the abdomen and more defined wrapround T (or dark anterolateral corners on terga III-V), a broader expanding costal band, narrower anal streak, dark fore and mid tibia and peripheral brown patches on scutum.

Pest Status

• Exotic
• Bactrocera occipitalis is a pest but has a limited host range

Attractant/Lure

Methyl eugenol