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<em>Zeugodacus tau</em>

Zeugodacus tau

Previous scientific names: Dasyneura tau, Dacus hageni, Dacus (Zeugodacus) tau, Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) tau

Diagnosis

Morphological – adult

Features include:

  • a medium sized species
  • face fulvous with a pair of medium sized circular to oval black spots
  • postpronotal lobes and notopleura yellow
  • scutum black with large areas of red-brown centrally and anterocentrally
  • lateral and medial postsutural vittae present
  • yellow spot anterior to mesonotal suture in front of lateral postsutural vittae
  • mesopleural stripe reaching midway between anterior margin of notopleuron and anterior npl. seta
  • scutellum entirely yellow
  • wing with a narrow dark fuscous costal band overlapping R2+3 and expanding into a distinct apical spot and broad dark fuscous anal streak
  • cells bc and c colourless
  • microtrichia in outer corner of cell c only
  • abdominal terga III-V fulvous with a black ‘T’ pattern and anterolateral corners of terga IV and V with broad black markings; posterior lobe of male surstylus short
  • female with apex of aculeus trilobed (Drew and Romig 2013).

Morphological – larvae

See White and Elson-Harris 1992 p. 273.

Molecular

DNA barcoding

BOLD reference data available, but not well resolved amongst a number of other species in BOLD.

Low divergence clades are apparent and when used in conjunction with other information about the specimen this may be sufficient to make a confident identification.

COI data
Z. tau TAU002 Leg variation Folmers COI
Z. tau TAU003 Scutum variation Folmers COI
Z. tau TAU005 Classic morphology Folmers COI

RPA2 data
Z. tau TAU002 Leg variation RPA2
Z. tau TAU003 Scutum variation RPA2
Z. tau TAU005 Classic morphology RPA2

DDOSTs2 data
Z. tau TAU002 Leg variation DDOSTs2
Z. tau TAU003 Scutum variation DDOSTs2

POP4 data
Z. tau TAU002 Leg variation POP4
Z. tau TAU003 Scutum variation POP4
Z. tau TAU005 Classic morphology POP4

EIF3L data
Z. tau TAU002 Leg variation EIF3L
Z. tau TAU005 Classic specimen EIF3L

PCR-RFLP Test 1

BsrI: Data not available

HinfI: Data not available

HhaI: Data not available

Sau3AI: Data not available

SnaBI: Data not available

SspI: Data not available

Vspl: Data not available

PCR-RFLP Test 2

Data not available.

Host Range

Bactrocera tau has been recorded on 34 hosts from 9 families including Curcurbitaceae, Fabaceae, Loganiaceae, Moraceae and Myrtaceae, Oleaceae, Sapotaceae and Vitaceae (for a full list of recorded hosts see Allwood et al. 1999).

Major commercial hosts:

  • Cucumis melo (melon)
  • Cucumis sativus (cucumber)
  • Cucurbita maxima (giant pumpkin)
  • Luffa acutangula (angled luffa)
  • Manilkara zapota (sapodilla)
  • Momordica charantia (bitter gourd)
  • Psidium guajava (guava)

Distribution

India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Vietnam, Southern China, Taiwan, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, East Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Bangladesh (Drew and Romig 2013, Leblanc et al. 2014).

Similar species

Bactrocera tau is a very common species throughout southeast Asia. It is an economic pest species, mainly in cucurbit crops, but can be misidentified as it belongs to a complex of closely related species.

The tau-complex includes Zeugodacus species with a black scutum, wings colourless except for a costal band and cubital streak, cells bc and c colourless or with an extremely pale tint, costal band overlapping R2+3 and expanding into a distinct spot at apex.

Bactrocera tau is distinct in having an entirely yellow scutellum, abdominal terga III-V with a distinct dark ‘T’ pattern and all femora with dark preapical spots (Drew and Romig 2013).

Additional Information:

Previously known as Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) tau until Zeugodacus was elevated to genus level by Virgilio et al. 2015. Now known as Zeugodacus (Zeugodacus) tau. For a full list of Zeugodacus species see DeMeyer et al. 2015.

Pest Status

  • Exotic
  • A major pest of cucurbit crops

Attractant/Lure

Cue lure.