Use this tool to identify adult fruit flies of the genus Bactrocera, and its closely allied genera Zeugodacus, Dacus, and Monacrostichus (Diptera: Tephritidae: Dacinae: Dacini). The tool covers all species of Dacini globally except those native to the African continent.
The Adult Bactrocera Fruit Fly ID tool includes a Lucid multi-entry key that aims to provide means for anyone with basic entomological training to accurately identify adult Dacini flies to species-level, or a small set of candidate species, based on morphological characters and male lure attraction. For some target pests, molecular verification of the morphology-based identification will be necessary to obtain a reliable identification because the variation in morphological characters can overlap between some species; this will be indicated on the corresponding fact sheet pages.
Different countries hold different lists of species that are considered pests or agriculturally or economically important. For this tool, we have attempted to create fact sheet pages for all Dacini species that are regarded as pest some place in the world, based on Vargas et al. (2015)Vargas 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, which covered Bactrocera and Zeugodacus, with the addition of four species of Dacus that are pests outside of Africa and both species of Monacrostichus. For convenience, highly similar and closely related species (species pairs or complexes) are treated on the same fact sheet page. The morphological identification section of each fact sheet includes spot characters that are unusual within Dacini and support reliable identification (for more information on spot characters see Tips for using the key). Because there are various other resources available that extensively cover Dacini species, we have not attempted to copy all this information here; see the Other Online Resources page.
Authors: Doorenweerd et al.
Last updated October 2024
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