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Euaresta bellula Snow

Recognition
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Euaresta bellula is one of the species of Euaresta with the anterior notopleural seta present, the apex of cell r₂₊₃ with 2 marginal hyaline spots, and the ground color of the thorax dark brown.. In wing pattern it closely resembles E. bella, stigmatica, and especially E. stelligera, in that the bulla is always present and the basal half to two-thirds of cell r₄₊₅ is dark. It and stelligera usually have two marginal hyaline spots present in cell r₁; if a third, apical one is present, it is small and does not cross vein R₂₊₃. The basal marginal spot broadly crosses this vein. In E. bella and stigmatica, the basal marginal spot in cell r₁ is always interrupted at the vein, whereas the subapical spot crosses it broadly. E. bellula can be further distinguished from E. stigmatica by its pterostigma never having more than a basal hyaline spot, and from E. bella by its mostly nonmicrotrichose abdominal tergite 5 (Foote et al. 1993). Euaresta bellula is extremely similar to E. stelligera, but differs in having abdominal tergites 3 and 4 entirely microtrichose, a narrower gena (height 0.04-0.08 mm., less than two-thirds width of first flagellomere vs. 0.075-0.14 mm., more than two-thirds width of first flagellomere in E. stelligera; see Table 1), femora entirely yellow (often partially brown in E. stelligera), and a slightly less rapidly tapered, more triangular aculeus tip.

Classification and Evolutionary Relationships
Order: Diptera. Family: Tephritidae. Subfamily: Tephritinae. Genus: Euaresta. Species: bellula. Author: Snow.
Relationships among the species of Euaresta were analyzed by Norrbom (1993). Click here for more detailed discussion of Euaresta phylogeny. Euaresta bellula has been placed in the bullans species group.

Names Used for this Species
Euaresta bellula Snow 1894: 172.
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Type Data
Lectotype - Female (UKaL), designated by Foote 1962: 173, USA: Arizona, Morrison, with the following labels: "Arizona, C. U. Lot 35"; and [red] "Co-type, Euaresta bellula Snow".

Distribution
Euaresta bellula is known from the western USA (inland northern and widespread southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah; with single questionable records from Iowa and Kansas) and northern Mexico (Baja California Norte, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Chihuahua). It has been collected much less commonly north of the Arizona and New Mexico borders than in southern California, Arizona, and northwestern Mexico. The records from Utah and northern California (Merced, Plumas, Tuolumne Counties) from distribution map 15 of Foote et al. (1993) have not recently been confirmed, but probably are valid. The record from Kansas and especially that from Iowa are suspicious, however, and should be rechecked. The distribution point for south central Texas in Foote et al. (1993, map 15) was based on 2 misidentified males of Dyseuaresta mexicana from Hondo, but E. bellula does occur in western Texas (Davis Mountains).
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Biology
The following plants are hosts of Euaresta bellula: Ambrosia ambrosioides (Cav.) Payne, female flowers or seeds (Foote 1984); A. chenopodiifolia (Bentham) Payne, male and female flowers (Foote & Blanc 1963, Goeden & Ricker 1976b); and Dicoria canescens Torrey & Gray, flowers (Goeden & Teerink 1993). Ambrosia dumosa (Gray) Payne and A. confertiflora DC., from which adults have been collected (Goeden & Ricker 1976a, Berlocher 1984), are other possible host plants. The host record from A. chamissonis (Lessing) Greene (Goeden & Ricker 1974) and the sweep records from Ambrosia acanthicarpa Hooker (Foote & Blanc 1963) pertain to Euaresta stelligera.

Voucher specimens have not been preserved to document most of the host plant records for E. bellula, but except for that of A. chenopodiifolia, the localities of these records are not within the distribution of E. stelligera and almost certainly pertain to E. bellula: Arizona (A. ambrosioides), New Mexico (sweep record from A. confertiflora), and inland California (D. canescens; sweep record from A. dumosa). Ambrosia chenopodiifolia occurs within the ranges of both fly species and could be a host plant of both, but the only available reared specimen is a male (USNM00056143) of E. bellula from San Ysidro, San Diego County, California, reared 23 Jun 1970 by Goeden & Ricker. The host record reported by Foote & Blanc (1963) was based on a series (not located) also from San Ysidro.

Economic Significance
Euaresta bellula may be considered a beneficial species because it reduces seed and/or pollen production by its ragweed and bur sage host plants, some of which are weeds and/or major causes of pollen allergies. In a small sample of Artemisia ambrosioides plants from Arizona, E. bellula was reported to destroy 50-98% of the seeds examined (Foote 1984).

Comments
Berlocher (1984) presented electrophoretic evidence that Euaresta stelligera, previously considered a synonym of E. bellula, is a distinct species. This was based on analysis of a population of E. stelligera from Oregon and a population of E. bellula from New Mexico. He also listed several morphological differences between these two populations, although of those only the difference in genal height appears to be fully diagnostic. There is little difference in aculeus tip length, but generally in E. stelligera the tip tapers more rapidly and is less triangular than in most E. bellula. The difference in abdominal microtrichial pattern also supports the hypothesis that these two species are distinct.

References
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Aldrich, J. M. 1905. A catalog of North American Diptera (or two-winged flies). Smithson. Misc. Collect. 46 (2): 680 p. [p. 613, in catalog]
Berlocher, S. H. 1984. Electrophoretic evidence for the validity of Euaresta stelligera Coquillett (Diptera: Tephritidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 57: 354-357. [electrophoresis]
Byers, G. W., F. Blank, W. J. Hanson, D. F. Beneway & R. W. Frederickson. 1962. Catalogue of the types in the Snow Entomological Museum. Part III (Diptera). Univ. Kans. Sci. Bull. 43: 131-181. [p. 180, type data]
Curran, C. H. 1932. New North American Diptera, with notes on others. Am. Mus. Novit. 526: 13 p.  [p. 9, taxonomy]
Doane, R. W. 1899. Notes on Trypetidae with descriptions of new species. J. N.Y. Entomol. Soc. 7: 177-193. [p. 192, California]
Foote, B. A. 1966. Biology and immature stages of eastern ragweed flies (Tephritidae). Proc. North Cent. Br. Entomol. Soc. Am. (1965) 20: 105-106. [p. 106, host]
Foote, B. A. 1984. Host plant records for North American ragweed flies (Diptera: Tephritidae). Entomological News 95: 51-54. [p. 53, hosts]
Foote, R. H. 1962. The types of North American Tephritidae in the Snow Museum, the University of Kansas (Diptera). J. Kans. Entomol. Soc. 35: 170-179. [p. 173, lectotype designation]
Foote, R. H. 1965. Family Tephritidae, p. 658-678. In A. Stone, C. W. Sabrosky, W. W. Wirth, R. H. Foote & J. R. Coulson, eds., A catalog of the Diptera of America north of Mexico. U.S. Dep. Agric. Agric. Handb. 276: 1696 p. [p. 665, in catalog]
Foote, R. H. & F. L. Blanc. 1963. The fruit flies or Tephritidae of California. Bull. Calif. Insect Surv. 7: 117 p. [p. 19, review, California]
Foote, R. H., F. L. Blanc & A. L. Norrbom. 1993. Handbook of the fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) of America north of Mexico. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca. 571 p. [review, USA]
Harris, P. & G. L. Piper. 1970. Ragweed (Ambrosia spp.: Compositae): its North American insects and the possibilities for its biological control. Tech. Bull. Commonw. Inst. Biol. Control 13: 117-140. [p. 134, host]
Goeden, R. D. & D. W. Ricker. 1974. The phytophagous insect fauna of the ragweed, Ambrosia chamissonis, in southern California. Environ. Entomol. 3: 835-839. [host]
Goeden, R. D. & D. W. Ricker. 1976a. The phytophagous insect fauna of the ragweed, Ambrosia dumosa, in southern California. Environ. Entomol. 5: 45-50. [p. 49, possible host]
Goeden, R. D. & D. W. Ricker. 1976b. The phytophagous insect faunas of the ragweeds, Ambrosia chenopodiifolia, Ambrosia eriocentra, Ambrosia ilicifolia in southern California. Environ. Entomol. 5: 923-930. [p. 929, host]
Goeden, R. D. & J. A. Teerink. 1993. Phytophagous insect faunas of Dicoria canescens and Iva axillaris, native relatives of ragweeds, Ambrosia spp., in southern California, with analyses of insect associates of Ambrosiinae. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 86: 37-50. [p. 41, host]
Norrbom, A. L. 1993. New species and phylogenetic analysis of Euaresta Loew (Diptera: Tephritidae) with a key to the species from the Americas south of Mexico. Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 95: 195-209. [phylogenetic relationships]
Norrbom, A. L., L. E. Carroll, F. C. Thompson, I. M. White & A. Freidberg. 1999. Systematic database of names, pp. 65-251. In F. C. Thompson (ed.), Fruit Fly Expert Identification System and Systematic Information Database. Myia (1998) 9, vii + 524 pp. & Diptera Data Dissemination Disk (CD-ROM) (1998) 1. [p. 145, in catalog]
Quisenberry, B. F. 1950. The genus Euaresta in the United States (Diptera: Tephritidae. J. N.Y. Entomol. Soc. 58: 9-38. [p. 22, revision]
Snow, F. H. 1904. Lists of Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera and Hemiptera collected in Arizona by the entomological expeditions of the University of Kansas in 1902 and 1903. Kans. Univ. Sci. Bull. 2 [= whole ser., 12]: 323-350. [p. 345, Arizona]
Snow, W. A. 1894. Descriptions of North American Trypetidae, with notes. Paper I. Kans. Univ. Q. 2: 159-174. [p. 172, description]
Wasbauer, M. S. 1972. An annotated host catalog of the fruit flies of America north of Mexico (Diptera: Tephritidae). Occas. Pap. Calif. Dep. Agric. Bur. Entomol. 19: [i] + 172 p. [p. 113, host list]
Woodworth, C. W. 1913. Guide to California insects. The Law Press, Berkeley. 360 p.   [p. 137, California]

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