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Anastrepha and Toxotrypana:
descriptions, illustrations, and interactive keys

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Allen L. Norrbom, Cheslavo A. Korytkowski, Roberto A. Zucchi, Keiko Uramoto, George L. Venable, Jerrett McCormick and Michael J. Dallwitz

Anastrepha obscura Aldrich

Body. Setae orange, or orange brown, or red brown.

Head. Frons without brown markings except ocellar tubercle. Occiput without brown marks. Ocellar seta weak, small or absent. Gena without brown spot. Facial carina in profile concave or flat on dorsal 2/3. Face without brown markings.

Thorax. Mesonotum length 4.2–5 mm (4.33–4.84, n=4). Postpronotal, presutural supra-alar, dorsocentral, intra-alar and scutellar setae well developed, subequal to or longer than scutellum length. Basal scutellar seta strong, longer than scutellum. Mesonotum yellow, or orange, or dark orange. Mesopleuron mostly yellow to orange, without brown markings.

Wings. Wing length 9.5–11.5 mm (10.0–10.9, n=4). Wing pattern without typical bands. Cell c mostly or entirely infuscated to subhyaline, or paler posteriorly, without distinct subapical hyaline area. C-band broadly extending to vein M in cell br along cell bm. Cell bm entirely infuscated. S-band base without extension in middle of cell cu1 to posterior wing margin. Vein R2+3 without accessory vein. Crossvein dm-cu orientation with anterior end more distal than posterior end.

Abdomen. Lateral surstylus in posterior view very short, barely extended beyond prensisetae, rounded apically. Lateral surstylus in posterior view not boot-shaped. Glans absent. Oviscape length 5.4–6.75 mm (5.56–6.59, n=4); ratio (oviscape length/mesonotum length) 1.05–1.5 (1.15–1.40, n=3); spiracle ratio (distance from base to spiracle/oviscape length) 0.18–0.24 (0.20–0.22, n=3); spiracle ratio to mesonotum length (distance from base to spiracle/mesonotum length) 0.24–0.32 (0.25–0.31, n=3). Eversible membrane with dorsobasal denticles all small, weakly developed, in triangular to semicircular pattern. Aculeus length 4.75–5.75 mm (4.95–5.56, n=3). Aculeus in ventral view more or less parallel-sided except extreme base. Aculeus tip length/aculeus length 0.02–0.05 (0.033–0.035, n=2). Aculeus tip length 0.14–0.2 mm (0.165–0.176, n=2; difficult to measure, proximal limit of tip difficult to distinguish); with fine serrations.

Miscellaneous. Data source: Stone 1939. Sex of recorded specimens: male and female. Species group: dentata group.

Biology and economic significance. This species is not considered economically important. Its only reported host plant is a species of Pouteria (Sapotaceae). Refer to the 'Tephritidae Databases' in the USDA Compendium of Fruit Fly Host Information (https://coffhi.cphst.org/) for host plant information.

Illustrations. • Wing. • Terminalia, female.


We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.


Cite this publication as: ‘Norrbom, A.L., Korytkowski, C.A., Zucchi, R.A., Uramoto, K., Venable, G.L., McCormick, J., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2012 onwards. Anastrepha and Toxotrypana: descriptions, illustrations, and interactive keys. Version: 21st November 2023. delta-intkey.com’.

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