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Zonosemata vidrapennis Bush

Dorsal habitus, male.

Recognition
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This species, like other Zonosemata species, is mostly yellow with a few dark brown markings on the abdomen and sometimes on the thorax. The scutum has three white stripes, including a medial one, and often has dark brown postsutural markings (absent in Mexican specimens). The wing is mostly hyaline with 5 transverse bands in a "spider-mimic" pattern.

Zonosemata vidrapennis differs from all of the other species of Zonosemata by its extremely narrow wing bands. Only it, Z. vittigera, and Z. macgregori have large nonmicrotrichose areas in the radial cells and cell dm between the discal and subapical bands. Both of the latter species have a dark brown, presutural, sublateral mark on the scutum that is absent in Z. vidrapennis. The katepisternum brown spot is present only in Central American specimens.

Classification and Evolutionary Relationships
Order: Diptera. Family: Tephritidae. Subfamily: Trypetinae. Genus: Zonosemata. Species: vidrapennis. Author: Bush.
Relationships among the species of Zonosemata have not been analyzed. Zonosemata vidrapennis may possibly be most closely related to Z. vittigera (Coquillett) and Z. macgregori (Hernández-Ortiz), which also have reduced wing microtrichia.

Names Used for this Species
Zonosemata vidrapennis Bush 1966: 321.
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Type data
Holotype - Male (National Museum of Natural History (USNM)), Mexico: Oaxaca: Oaxaca, 16 Sep 1933, C. C. Plummer.

Distribution
Zonosemata vidrapennis is known from Mexico (Michoacán, Mexico, Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas), Guatemala, and Honduras.
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Biology
As far as known, all species of Zonosemata breed in fruits of species of Solanaceae, and mainly of the genus Solanum. Host information for Z. vidrapennis is limited. In Mexico, it was collected on or reared from one or more undetermined Solanum species (an adult male labeled "Hosp. Solanum sp." may have been reared) (Norrbom 1990). In Honduras, specimens were collected by L. Cañas on fruits of Solanum lanceolatum Cav. (Norrbom 2002).

Economic Significance
Zonosemata vidrapennis is not considered a pest species, but it may be a potential biological control agent for Solanum lanceolatum, on which it has been collected. This plant, native from southern Mexico to western Panama, is an invasive weed in California.

Comments
Specimens from Guatemala and Honduras differ from Mexican specimens in having a large, U-shaped dark brown mark on the scutum and scutellum, a small dark brown area on the notopleuron, a small brown area on the katepisternum, and a mostly to entirely dark brown subscutellum and mediotergite. These areas are entirely orange in the Mexican specimens, although the latter have large spots on the last abdominal tergite, on the anepimeron, and in males, on the epandrium, so this does not appear to be age-related variation. More detailed study of additional specimens, particularly reared series from both Mexico and Central America, is needed to confirm if this is geographic variation as interpreted by Norrbom (2002).

References
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Bush, G. L. 1966. The genus Zonosemata, with notes on the cytology of two species. Psyche (Cambridge) (1965) 72: 307-323. [p. 321, description]
Hernández-Ortiz, V. 1989. Una especie nueva de Zonosemata (Díptera: Tephritidae) y clave de identificación de las especies del género. Anales del Instituto de Biologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Serie Zoologia 60: 205-210. [p. 207, in key]
Norrbom, A. L. 1990. Notes on Zonosemata Benjamin (Diptera: Tephritidae) and the status of Cryptodacus scutellatus Hendel (= Z. ica Steyskal syn. n.). Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien 91: 53-55. [p. 55, host]
Norrbom, A. L. 2002. A new species and key for the genus Zonosemata Benjamin (Diptera: Tephritidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 104: 614-623. [p. 621, Guatemala, Honduras, in key]
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. [p. 249, in catalog]