Abstract
The Bactrocera dorsalis complex (Tephritidae) comprises 85 species of fruit flies, including five highly destructive polyphagous fruit pests. Despite significant work on a few key pest species within the complex, little has been published on the majority of non-economic species in the complex, other than basic descriptions and illustrations of single specimens regarded as typical representatives. To elucidate the species relationships within the Bactrocera dorsalis complex, we used 159 sequences from one mitochondrial (COI) and two nuclear (elongation factor-1α and period) genes to construct a phylogeny containing 20 described species from within the complex, four additional species that may be new to science, and 26 other species from Bactrocera and its sister genus Dacus. The resulting concatenated phylogeny revealed that most of the species placed in the complex appear to be unrelated, emerging across numerous clades. This suggests that they were placed in the Bactrocera dorsalis complex based on the similarity of convergent characters, which does not appear to be diagnostic. Variations in scutum and abdomen color patterns within each of the non-economic species are presented and demonstrate that distantly-related, cryptic species overlap greatly in traditional morphological color patterns used to separate them in keys. Some of these species may not be distinguishable with confidence by means other than DNA data.
Highlights
Most of the Dacine fruit flies (Tephritidae: Dacini) are in the genera Bactrocera (651 described species) and Dacus (270 species), with many species (73 Bactrocera and 11 Dacus) bred from commercial/edible fruit and fleshy vegetables (Vargas et al 2015)
Drew and Hancock (1994) revised the group from South-East Asia, describing 40 new species and splitting B. dorsalis into four distinct species, resulting in a total of 52 species, plus 16 species in Australasia (Drew 1989)
One clear example is the inclusion of non-OFF complex B. bryoniae, B. latifrons, B. limbifera, with B. kohkongiae, which fits in the OFF complex (Figure 15 A–C) in a strongly supported (100%, 100% PP value) clade (Figure 1)
Summary
Most of the Dacine fruit flies (Tephritidae: Dacini) are in the genera Bactrocera (651 described species) and Dacus (270 species), with many species (73 Bactrocera and 11 Dacus) bred from commercial/edible fruit and fleshy vegetables (Vargas et al 2015). Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) (= the Oriental fruit fly) is the most destructive and polyphagous species (Vargas et al 2015), belonging to a large complex of similar-looking species: the Bactrocera dorsalis complex (hereafter referred to as the OFF complex). Drew and Hancock (1994) revised the group from South-East Asia, describing 40 new species and splitting B. dorsalis into four distinct species, resulting in a total of 52 species, plus 16 species in Australasia (Drew 1989). Six of the species (B. carambolae Drew & Hancock, B. caryeae (Kapoor), B. dorsalis, B. kandiensis Drew & Hancock, B. occipitalis (Bezzi), and B. trivialis (Drew)) in the complex are significant pests of cultivated fruit (Vargas et al 2015)
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