Zeugodacus cucurbitae

Taxonomy

Valid name: Zeugodacus (Zeugodacus) cucurbitae (Coquillett, 1899)
Preferred common name: melon fly
Synonyms:
   Dacus cucurbitae (original combination in Coquillett, 1899)
   Bactrocera cucurbitae (subsequent combination in Bezzi, 1913)
   Chaetodacus cucurbitae (subsequent combination in Bezzi, 1914)
   P. cucurbitat (misspelling in Kamasaki, 1970)
   Strumeta cucurbitae (subsequent combination in Perkins, 1937)
Dacus aureus Tseng & Chu, 1982 (secondary junior homonym)
Dacus fulvidus Froggatt, 1909 (unavailable name)
Dacus yuiliensis Tseng & Chu, 1992 (replacement name, unjustified)

Morphology-based identification

Zeugodacus cucurbitae can be identified reliably based on morphological characters. Spot characters are on the wing; a yellowish costal band that crosses vein R2+3 and ends with a round brown mark at the distal ending of vein R4+5, and a brown infuscation along vein dm+cu.

Molecular identification

COI sequence data can be used to reliably identify Z. cucurbitae, its closest sister species is Z. tau (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
). A genome-wide SNP analysis revealed six global populations (Dupuis et al. 2018Dupuis et al. 2018:
Dupuis JR, Bremer FT, Kauwe A, Jose MS, Leblanc L, Rubinoff D, Geib SM, 2018. HiMAP: Robust phylogenomics from highly multiplexed amplicon sequencing. Molecular Ecology Resources 18: 1000–1019. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.12783
).

Distribution

The exact native range of Z. cucurbitae remains unclear but is somewhere in Southeast Asia, where it is now widespread from Pakistan to the Philippines and south to New Guinea. It has successfully invaded multiple Pacific islands including the Hawaiian Islands, as well as the entire continent of Africa where it was first recorded in 1936 (De Meyer et al. 2015De Meyer et al. 2015:
De Meyer M, Delatte H, Mwatawala M, Quilici S, Vayssieres J-F, Virgilio M, 2015. A review of the current knowledge on Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera, Tephritidae) in Africa, with a list of species included in Zeugodacus. ZooKeys 540: 539–557. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.540.9672
).

Further information

Zeugodacus cucurbitae is the only representative of Zeugodacus that is listed as a "category A" 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 A pest is defined as "widespread invasive polyphagous generalists or highly destructive specialists that have become established outside of their native range". Zeugodacus cucurbitae is one of the main pests of the tribe and despite its name it is polyphagous and also feeds on fruits other than Cucurbitaceae.
 Scientific illustration of  Z. cucurbitae  by Cody Anderson.
Scientific illustration of Z. cucurbitae by Cody Anderson.
 Photo plate of  Z. cucurbitae .
Photo plate of Z. cucurbitae.