Neoceratitis Hendel 1927
Creators: name: Meyer, Marc De
name: Freidberg, Amnon
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Tephritidae
Neoceratitis

description: Neoceratitis Hendel, 1927: 61.
Type species: Ceratitis asiatica Becker, 1908 by original designation.
Neoceratitis. Hardy 1967 [mistletoe infesting species]; Hancock 1987 [key to Zimbabwean species]; Freidberg & Kugler 1989 [Israel fauna]; Korneyev 1994 [synonymy, key]; Hancock & Drew 1994 [relationship with other Ceratitidina]; Norrbom et al. 1999 [world catalogue].
Trirhithromyia Hendel, 1931: 2 (proposed as subgenus of Ceratitis). Type species: Ceratitis efflatouni Hendel, 1931 by monotypy. Synonymy: Korneyev 1994.
Heoceratitis Hendel, 1927: 20. Error.
Diagnosis. Neoceratitis can be separated from morphologically similar genera by the combination of the following diagnostic characters: arista pubescent; scutum with dark brown to black ground colour, with central silver-grey microtrichia forming a characteristic pattern with anterior and posterior extensions and shining round patch at mesal end of transverse suture; scutellum convex or partially flattened, with variable black and white pattern; wing with dark brown banded pattern consisting of an anterior apical band, a posterior apical band (see also description below), a discal band, and a subapical band (sensu banding in Ceratitis, cf White et al. 1999, figure 33.3c), basal area brownish and subbasally continued as series of darker spots and streaks as observed in other ceratitidine genera. Female aculeus usually simply pointed, at most tip with subapical steps.
Description. Head. First flagellomere twice to three times as long as pedicel; yellow to brownish; rounded apically. Arista short to moderately long pubescent along entire length. Frons yellow, sometimes with darker markings. Face entirely white, or white with darkish markings; in lateral view largely straight to concave. Chaetotaxy: major setae black and acuminate; two orbitals, anterior orbital thicker and longer than posterior orbital; two frontals, anterior frontal slightly shorter than posterior frontal; one pair of ocellars, as long as or longer than anterior orbital; medial vertical at least twice as long as posterior orbital, lateral vertical equal to posterior orbital seta; postocellar black, shorter than lateral vertical; postoculars slender and short, black. Genal setulae usually well developed, black. Genal seta black. Other setae and setulae short and black or whitish-yellow.
Thorax. Postpronotal lobe white, or white with anterior part black-brown. Scutum wider than long or as long as wide; shining black-brown; with short dark setulae; centrally with large area with silver-grey setulae and microtrichia; microtrichia pattern (Fig 1 c) anteriorly extending to scapular setae, along pair of submedial lines, in medial part only extending to halfway between transverse suture and scapular setae; posteriorly extending to scutellum in medial part for width equal to distance between prescutellar acrostichal setae, sublaterally usually almost extending to intra-alar seta; microtrichia lacking near medial end of transverse suture where round shining black spot present; sometimes microtrichose pattern reduced or different (Fig. 1 a–b). Scutellum usually rounded and swollen, rarely somewhat flattened; white or with black apical marking(s) that can extend to anterior margin (Fig. 2). Subscutellum entirely brown. Anepisternum variable, either largely brown or brown with posterodorsal area white, white area usually touching postpronotal lobe and dorsal margin, ventrally extending obliquely to posteroventral corner or almost so. Katatergite and anatergite variable, usually partly or wholly white to yellow, sometimes brownish. Chaetotaxy: setae on scutum normal in shape and usually black; two scapulars, one postpronotal, two notopleurals, one presutural supra-alar, one dorsocentral, one postsutural supra-alar, one postalar, one intra-alar, one prescutellar acrostichal, one basal and one apical scutellar, one anepisternal, one anepimeral, and one katepisternal.
Legs. Yellow; femora sometimes darkened. Setae black, setulae yellow to black. Midtibial spur black.
Wing. Vein R4+5 dorsally sparsely setulose on basal two-thirds. Vein M reaching costa posterior to wing apex. Cell bcu with posterodistal lobe sinuous. Wing banding brown and similar to pattern observed in Ceratitis species (Fig. 3), with discal, anterior apical, posterior apical and subapical bands present, although latter two appear to be completely merged with each other in one species. Subapical band isolated or connected to discal and/or anterior apical band. Basal area of wing largely brownish, but not forming distinct band; continued subbasally with brownish streaks and spots.
Abdomen. Ground colour usually brown to black, rarely reddish; with black setulae, usually with longer setae along posterior margin of tergites. Tergites 2 and 4 often with paler transverse band and pale setulae. Male terminalia, surstyli (Fig. 4), lateral surstylus usually with anterior lobe short; prensisetae in lateral view largely obscured by lateral surstylus. Female terminalia, oviscape black to brown, shorter than length of abdominal tergites 1-5 combined; with short, dispersed blackish setulae. Aculeus elongated or short (Fig. 5) flattened; aculeus tip usually simply pointed or with weakly developed subapical steps (Fig. 6).
Key to the species of the genus Neoceratitis
1 Scutum: microtrichose area not extending to scutellar margin (Fig. 1 b); scutellum partly flattened, white (except at basolateral margins; Fig. 2 d); female aculeus at least ten times longer than wide (Fig. 5 f)....................... N. flavoscutellata
- Scutum: microtrichose area extending to scutellar margin (Fig. 1 a,c); scutellum swollen, with distinct black and white pattern, at least area between apical scutellar setae black (Fig. 2 a −c,e); female aculeus at most six times longer than wide (Fig. 5 a −e)..................................................................................................... 2
2 Scutellum: medial part white, otherwise black (Fig. 2 b −c)..................................................... 3
- Scutellum: medial part black, along anterior margin with two or four white spots (Fig. 2 a, e)......................... 4
3 Scutellum: white medial part extending to lateral margins near basal scutellar setae (Fig. 2 c); large species (wing length more than 4mm); wing: posterior apical band narrower than subapical band (Fig. 3 c); female aculeus tip with subapical steps (Fig. 6 c)...................................................................................... N. cyanescens
- Scutellum: white medial part not extending to lateral margins, completely surrounded by black margin (Fig. 2 b); small species (wing length less than 4mm); wing: posterior apical band as wide as subapical band (Fig. 3 b); female aculeus tip without subapical steps (simply pointed) (Fig. 6 b)............................................................. N. asiatica
4 Wing: anterior and posterior apical bands fused throughout their full length; crossvein R-M beyond middle of discal cell (Fig. 3 d)........................................................................................ N. efflatouni
- Wing: anterior and posterior apical bands separate except proximally where both merge; crossvein R-M at or proximal to middle of discal cell (Fig. 3 a,f).............................................................................. 5
5 Thorax: anepisternal seta black; wing: brownish base largely confluent with discal band through extensive spots and streaks; posterior apical band narrower than subapical band; base of subapical band gradually curved (Fig. 3 f)............. N. lycii
- Thorax: anepisternal seta white; wing: brownish base separated from discal band in basal part of cell cu and apical part of cell bm by hyaline region; posterior apical band as broad as subapical band; base of subapical band sinuous (Fig. 3 a).. N. albiseta
description: Published as part of Meyer, Marc De & Freidberg, Amnon, 2012, Taxonomic revision of the fruit fly genus Neoceratitis Hendel (Diptera: Tephritidae), pp. 24-39 in Zootaxa 3223 on pages 25-27, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3223.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/209664