Taxonomy
Valid name: Monacrostichus citricola Bezzi
Preferred common name: None.
Synonyms: Monacrostichus citricolus (invalid name in Hardy and Adachi 1954)
Valid name: Monacrostichus malaysiae Drew & Hancock
Preferred common name: None.
Synonyms: None.
There are only two species of Monacrostichus described. This genus is included in the tribe Dacini but is clearly the most divergent of the four with a narrower scutum and abdomen and differently sized cells on the wing. There are no subgenera in Monacrostichus.
Morphology-based identification
Whereas all other Dacini genera have almost identical wing venation, the genus
Monacrostichus is easily recognized by the elongated cell
bc.
Monacrostichus malaysiae differs from
M. citricola in lacking presutural yellow markings on the scutum, having black abdominal tergites 3 and 4 instead of partly yellow, and having a pale fuscous tint across the entire wing (
Drew and Hancock 1994bDrew and Hancock 1994b:
Drew RAI, Hancock DL, 1994. Revision of the Tropical Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae: Dacinae) of South-east Asia. I. Ichneumonopsis Hardy and Monacrostichus Bezzi. Invertebrate Taxonomy 8: 829–838.).
Molecular identification
There are no molecular reference data available for either species of
Monacrostichus.
Distribution
Monacrostichus citricola is widespread in Southeast Asia from Thailand to the Philippines, it is treated as a quarantine pest in several countries due to its feeding on citrus, but it is never common.
Monacrostichus malaysiae is only known from its type locality, the University of Malaya garden in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Further information
Monacrostichus citricola has been reared from various
Citrus, including
C. aurantifolia (lime),
C. hystrix (wild lime),
C. reticulata (mandarin),
C. limon (lemon),
C. limetta (lime), and
C. maxima (pummelo).
Monacrostichus malaysiae has only been reared from
C. halimii (kumquat).
