Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Results from a snap-shot survey of Dacine fruit flies carried out on three of the Solomon Islands in April are reported. Using traps baited with the male lures cue-lure, methyl eugenol, and zingerone, 30 of the 48 species previously known to occur in the Solomon Islands were collected.
Six species are newly described here: Bactrocera allodistincta sp. An illustrated key to the 54 species now known to be present in the country is provided.
Keywords: Dacus , Oceania, pest species, taxonomy, Zeugodacus. Dacine fruit flies Diptera : Tephritidae : Dacini , a species-rich Old World tropical group, is composed of currently known species, including 83 crop pests White and Elson-Harris ; Vargas et al.
Diversity is particularly high in Australasia, with species described and an imminent publication of 65 new species from Papua New Guinea R. Drew, pers. Many more new species are being discovered, especially cryptic species, with ever improving molecular diagnostic tools and the emergence of new generation male lures De Meyer et al.
The earliest Dacine fruit fly record in the Solomon Islands was the description of Bactrocera longicornis Macquart, in By , eleven species were known Malloch , growing to 26 five decades later Drew Extensive survey efforts through trapping and host fruit surveys during the Regional Fruit Fly Projects in the Pacific Allwood and Drew ; Allwood ; Lidner and McLeod nearly doubled the number of species to 48 Drew and Romig Two decades later, we carried out a snap-shot survey on three islands Guadalcanal, Kolombangara, Gizo , with the inclusion of zingerone lure, to collect fresh material and develop molecular diagnostic tools to help further characterize the species found in the Solomon Islands.
