Taxonomy
The three species in this complex are also the only three members of subgenus Notodacus. There is an additional undescribed species known from Samoa (Leblanc, pers. comm.).
Valid name: Bactrocera (Notodacus) xanthodes (Broun, 1904)
Preferred common name: Pacific fruit fly
Valid name: Bactrocera (Notodacus) paraxanthodes Drew & Hancock, 1995
Valid name: Bactrocera (Notodacus) neoxanthodes Drew & Romig, 2001
Morphology-based identification
All three described species in the
B. xanthodes species complex can be identified based on morphology, but the undescribed species from Samoa is not included in the Lucid key. Spot characters for the whole complex (and subgenus) are the yellow marking that connects the lateral yellow vitta to the postpronotal lobe and lack of facial markings. Within the complex, distinguishing characters are the medial yellow vitta that can extent onto the scutellum, and the width of the costal band on the wing.
Molecular identification
COI sequence data can be used to distinguish
B. xanthodes,
B. neoxanthodes, and
B. paraxanthodes (
Doorenweerd et al. 2024Doorenweerd et al. 2024:
Doorenweerd C, San Jose M, Leblanc L, Barr N, Geib SM, Chung AYC, Dupuis JR, Ekayanti A, Fiegalan E, Hemachandra KS, Hossain MA, Huang C, Hsu Y, Morris KY, Maryani A. Mustapeng A, Niogret J, Pham TH, Thi Nguyen N, Sirisena UGAI, Todd T, Rubinoff D, 2024. Towards a better future for DNA barcoding: Evaluating monophyly‐ and distance‐based species identification using COI gene fragments of Dacini fruit flies. Molecular Ecology Resources 24: e13987. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.13987). There are no reference sequence data available for the undescribed species from Samoa.
Distribution
Bactrocera xanthodes is present on Fiji, Tonga, Niue, Samoa and has been introduced to the Cook Islands, Wallis and Futuna and Nauru. Its native range is unclear.
Bactrocera paraxanthodes is found only in New Caledonia, and
B. neoxanthodes is only on Vanuatu. The undescribed species is only on the island of Samoa, where it is sympatric with
B. xanthodes.
Further information
Bactrocera xanthodes is listed as a "category B" polyphagous fruit pest in
Vargas et al. 2015Vargas et al. 2015:
Vargas RI, Pinero JC, Leblanc L, 2015. An overview of pest species of Bactrocera fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) and the integration of biopesticides with other biological approaches for their management with a focus on the pacific region. Insects 6: 297–318. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects6020297. A category B pest is there defined as "polyphagous fruit pests or destructive specialists more restricted in distribution, but at elevated risk of spreading to new locations". Several of the 40 different host literature records attributed to
B. xanthodes may have been convoluted with the other members of this complex.
