Diagnosis

Morphological – adult

Features include:

• face fulvous with a pair of large elongate oval black spots
• scutum black with a small area of dark brown posterolateral to lateral postsutural vittae
• postpronotal lobes yellow (except anterodorsal corners fuscous)
• notopleura yellow
• mesopleural stripe reaching midway between anterior margin of notopleuron and anterior npl. seta dorsally
• two narrow lateral postsutural vittae which are either parallel sided or narrowing slightly posteriorly to end at or just before ia. seta
• medial postsutural vitta absent
• scutellum yellow with a broad black basal band
• legs with femora fulvous with large dark fuscous to black preapical spots on outer surfaces of fore femora and inner surfaces of mid and hind femora, fore tibiae fuscous, mid tibiae fulvous, hind tibiae dark fuscous
• wings with cells bc and c colourless, sparse microtrichia in outer corner of cell c only, a very narrow fuscous costal band confluent with R2+3 and remaining very narrow around apex of wing, a narrow fuscous anal streak contained within cell cup
• supernumerary lobe of medium development
• abdominal terga III-V orange-brown with dark fuscous to black across anterior 1/3 to 1/2 of tergum III, two broad lateral longitudinal dark fuscous to black bands and a narrow medial longitudinal black band over all three terga, a pair of oval orange-brown shining spots on tergum V
• abdominal sterna dark coloured
• posterial lobe of male surstylus short
• female with aculeus tip needle shaped (Drew and Romig 2013).

Morphological – larvae

Information not available.

Molecular

Host Range

Bactrocera caryeae has been recorded on hosts from six families. These include:

• Anacardiaceae
• Lecythidaceae
• Malpighiaceae
• Myrtaceae
• Rutaceae
• Sapotaceae

For a full list of recorded species see Allwood et al. 1999.

Major commercial hosts:

• Citrus species (citrus)
• Mangifera indica (mango)
• Psidium guajava (guava)

Distribution

Southern India (Drew and Romig 2013).

Similar species

Bactrocera caryeae is similar to the Australian B. endiandrae but differs in having dark anteromedial corners on the postpronotal lobes, very narrow vittae, very narrow anal streak, dark fore tibia and dark apical spots on all femora.

It is similar to the exotic B. kandiensis, but differs in having a wraparound T (instead of a defined T) on the abdomen.

Pest Status

• Exotic
• Bactrocera caryeae occurs in very large populations in many fruit growing areas of southern India and is probably responsible for much of the damage generally attributed to Bactrocera dorsalis.

Attractant/Lure

Methyl eugenol.