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Anastrepha anomala Stone

Wing.

Recognition
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Anastrepha anomala is one of the species of the serpentina group with a hyaline area in cell br posterior to the pterostigma that is not extended to vein R4+5. Of the other species with this character, A. anomala is most likely to be confused with with A. normalis and A. pseudanomala. It differs from both species by its more slender, tapered aculeus tip (no more than 0.12 mm wide), and at least from A. normalis in having a strong basolateral lobe on the lateral surstylus (the male is unknown for A. pseudanomala). It further differs from A. normalis in having the middle section of the S-band solidly dark brown anterior and distal to crossvein R-M, and the aculeus tip finely serrate on the distal half or more (except in Maranhão, Brazil female). Most females have slightly longer terminalia (oviscape more than 1.4 times mesonotum length; aculeus more than 4.3 mm long) than in A. normalis and A. pseudanomala, but they are shorter in a single female from Bahia, Brazil (see Comments).

Classification and Evolutionary Relationships
Order: Diptera. Family: Tephritidae. Genus: Anastrepha. Species: anomala. Author: Stone.
Relationships among the species of Anastrepha were analyzed by Norrbom et al. (1999) and McPheron et al. (1999). Click here for more detailed discussion of Anastrepha phylogeny. Anastrepha anomala has been placed in the serpentina species group, but its exact relationship to the other species of the group are unresolved (Norrbom 2002; see Phylogeny of the Anastrepha serpentina group).

Names Used for this Species
Anastrepha anomala Stone 1942: 29.
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Type Data
Holotype - Female (National Museum of Natural History (USNM), USMN00052966)), PANAMA: Panamá: Barro Colorado Island, reared ex. seeds of Zschokkea panamensis [= Lacmellea panamensis], 17 Mar 1937, J. Zetek 3814.

Distribution
Anastrepha anomala is known with certainty only from Panama and Brazil (Bahia and Maranhão), although the status of the Brazilian populations needs further study (see Comments). Records from Venezuela (Caraballo 1981) were based on misidentifications of A. normalis. The record from Guatemala (Norrbom et al. 1999a) is unconfirmed. It was based on a male (J. López, pers. comm.) that might be conspecific with an undetermined male from Mexico treated by (Norrbom 2002) as a possibly undescribed species.
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Biology
The only known host plant of Anastrepha anomala is Lacmellea panamensis (Woodson) Markgr. (Apocynaceae) (Stone 1942, as Zschokkea panamensis). The holotype and some of the paratypes were reared from seeds of this plant.

Economic Significance
Anastrepha anomala is not considered a pest species.

Comments
The aculeus tip is very finely serrate in the Panamanian specimens, but more extensively so than indicated by Stone (1942). The status of the populations represented by single females from Bahia and Maranhão, Brazil (R. A. Zucchi, pers. comm.) needs further study. They may be distinct species. The Bahia female differs from specimens from Panama in having shorter terminalia (oviscape 3.70 mm long and 1.02 times mesonotum length; aculeus 3.62 mm long), a slightly shorter, blunter, and less serrate aculeus tip, and a slightly narrower distal section of the S-band (less than 0.40 times width of cell r2+3 at apex of vein R2+3). It also has a spur vein in cell r4+5 anterior to crossvein DM-Cu, but this is probably an anomaly. The female from Maranhão has relatively long terminalia (oviscape 5.51 mm long and 1.56 times mesonotum length; aculeus 5.51 mm long) but the aculeus tip is short (0.19 mm) and nonserrate. The width of the distal section of its S-band is intermediate between the Panamanian and Bahian specimens.

References
Key references are listed below. See fruit fly literature database for additional references.
Caraballo, J. 1981. Las moscas de frutas del genero Anastrepha Schiner, 1868 (Diptera: Tephritidae) de Venezuela. M.S. thesis, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Maracay. 210 pp. [Venezuela]
Norrbom, A. L. 2002. A revision of the Anastrepha serpentina species group (Diptera: Tephritidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 104: 390-436. [p. 393, revision]
Norrbom, A. L. Host plant database for Anastrepha and Toxotrypana (Diptera: Tephritidae: Toxotrypanini). Diptera Data Dissemination Disc 2 (in press). [host database]
Norrbom, A. L., L. E. Carroll, F. C. Thompson, I. M. White & A. Freidberg. 1999a. 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. [in catalog]
Stone, A. 1942. The fruitflies of the genus Anastrepha. U. S. Dept. Agric. Misc. Publ. No. 439, 112 pp. [p. 29, description, Panama, host]
Zucchi 1983  [p. 280, Brazil, Bahia]