Anastrepha Main | Tephritidae Main | Diptera Home | SEL Home

Anastrepha bicolor (Stone)

Wing.

Recognition
Click here for full description and more images
This species belongs to the daciformis species group, which differs from other species of Anastrepha in having the basal third of the scutellum brown, the male phallus extremely short (less than 0.30 mm long) and with the glans absent (as in the dentata group), and the female eversible membrane dorsobasally with a single, medially interrupted row of very stout scales.  Anastrepha bicolor is one of several species with a vespidlike wing pattern comprising only a broad, uninterrupted, costal band covering all of cell r₂₊₃, and a cubital streak.  It differs from A. macrura and A. zucchii in having the presutural lateral stripe complete. It differs from A. aquila, A. avispa and A. zucchii in having the posterior half of the part of cell br bordering bm hyaline and bare of microtrichia. Its banded abdominal pattern clearly distinguishes A. bicolor from A. macrura and A. zucchii, in which the abdomen is brown with a pale stripe or T-shaped mark, and less so from A. aquila and A. avispa, which are intermediate in abdominal pattern.

Classification and Evolutionary Relationships
Order: Diptera. Family: Tephritidae. Genus: Anastrepha. Species: bicolor. 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 bicolor has been placed in the daciformis species group. Norrbom (1998) analyzed the relationships among the species of the daciformis group (see Phylogeny of the Anastrepha daciformis group) and included A. bicolor in the macrura complex, which also includes A. aquila Norrbom, avispa Norrbom, macrura Hendel, and zucchii Norrbom. Anastrepha bicolor appears to be the sister group of the clade that includes the other four species.

Names Used for this Species
Pseudodacus bicolor Stone 1939: 288.
Anastrepha bicolor: Steyskal 1977: 3.
Click here to link to fly names database

Type Data
Holotype - Female (USMN, no. 53330), USA: Texas: Edinburg, 20 Oct 1937.

Distribution
Anastrepha bicolor occurs from the USA (southern Texas) south to northwestern Costa Rica (Norrbom 1998, Hernández-Ortiz 1992). It has not been reported from Honduras, El Salvador, or Nicaragua, but presumably occurs there.
Click here for map
Click here for specimen data

Biology
The biology of Anastrepha bicolor is poorly known.  Its host plants are unknown, although it probably attacks fruits of species of Sapotaceae like other species of the daciformis species group.

Economic Significance
Anastrepha bicolor is not considered a pest species.

Comments
The variation in the length of the female terminalia is considerably greater among the specimens that Norrbom (1998) recognized as A. bicolor than in any other species of the daciformis group (see Table). This does not appear to be due to sampling error, as the variation in the similar sized sample of A. pallens was much lower, although this species has a similar distribution to A. bicolor. Arbitrarily dividing the sample by oviscape length greater than or less than 5 mm (see Table, "bicolor long", "bicolor short") yielded samples with variation similar to that in other species. The "long" sample included all of the Morelos females and single females from Chamela, Jalisco and Rosario, Sinaloa. It is possible that the individuals with longer terminalia represent a cryptic species, but study of specimens with host data or larger specimen samples is needed to support this hypothesis.

References
Key references are listed below. See fruit fly literature database for additional references.
Baker, A.C., W.E. Stone, C.C. Plummer & M. McPhail. 1944. A review of studies on the Mexican fruitfly and related Mexican species. U. S. Dep. Agric. Misc. Publ. No. 531, 155 p. [p. 118, Mexico]
Foote, R.H. 1965. Family Tephritidae, p. 658-678. In: A. Stone et al., eds., A catalog of the Diptera of America north of Mexico. U. S. Dep. Agric. Agric. Handb. No. 276, 1696 p. [p. 674, in catalog]
Foote, R.H. 1967. Family Tephritidae (Trypetidae, Trupaneidae), Fasc. 57, 91 p. In: N. Papavero, ed., A catalogue of the Diptera of the Americas south of the United States. Departamento de Zoologia, Secretaria da Agricultura, São Paulo. [p. 39, in catalog]
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. [p. 91, USA]
Hernández-Ortiz, V. 1992. El genero Anastrepha Schiner en Mexico (Diptera: Tephritidae). Taxonomia, distribucion y sus plantas huespedes. Instituto de Ecología y Sociedad Mexicana de Entomología, Xalapa. 162 p. [p. 55, Mexico]
McPheron, B. A., H.-Y. Han, J. G. Silva & A. L. Norrbom. 1999. Phylogeny of the genera Anastrepha and Toxotrypana (Trypetinae: Toxotrypanini) based upon 16S rRNA mitochondrial DNA sequences, p. 343-361. In M. Aluja & A. L. Norrbom, eds., Fruit flies (Tephritidae): Phylogeny and evolution of behavior. CRC Press, Boca Raton. [16] + 944 p. [phylogeny]
Norrbom, A. L. 1998. A revision of the Anastrepha daciformis species group (Diptera: Tephritidae). Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 100: 160-192. [p. 178, revision]
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 9, vii + 524 pp. & Diptera Data Dissemination Disk (CD-ROM) (1998) 1. [in catalog and database]
Norrbom, A. L., R. A. Zucchi & V. Hernández-Ortiz. 1999. Phylogeny of the genera Anastrepha and Toxotrypana (Trypetinae: Toxotrypanini) based on morphology, p. 299-342. In M. Aluja & A. L. Norrbom, eds., Fruit flies (Tephritidae): Phylogeny and evolution of behavior. CRC Press, Boca Raton. [16] + 944 p. [classification & phylogeny]
Steyskal, G.C. 1977b. Pictorial key to species of the genus Anastrepha (Diptera: Tephritidae). Entomological Society of Washington, Washington, D.C. 35 p. [p. 3, in key, transfer to Anastrepha]
Stone, A. 1939. A revision of the genus Pseudodacus Hendel (Dipt. Trypetidae). Rev. Entomol. (Rio J.) 10: 282-289. [p. 288, description]