Diagnosis

Morphological – adult

Features include:

• medium sized species
• large black facial spots present
• postpronotal lobes black, occasionally red brown
• notopleura yellow
• scutum glossy black, mesopleural stripe reaching midway between anterior margin of notopleuron and anterior npl. seta, lateral postsutural vittae present and short to long, medial postsutural vitta absent, scutellum yellow with a black triangle on dorsal surface
• wing with a narrow extremely pale fuscous costal band and broad fuscous anal streak, a narrow fuscous transverse band across wing, cells bc and c pale fuscous, microtrichia covering most of cell c
• abdominal terga III-V orange-brown with a broad medial and 2 broad lateral longitudinal black bands
• posterior lobe of male surstylus short
• female with aculeus tip needle shaped (Drew 1989; Drew and Romig 2013).

Morphological – larvae

See White and Elson-Harris 1992 p. 204.

Molecular

Host Range

Bactrocera frauenfeldi has been recorded on hosts from a wide range of families. These include:

• Anacardiaceae
• Annonaceae
• Caricaceae
• Clusiaceae
• Combretaceae
• Ebenaceae
• Euphorbiaceae
• Lecythidaceae
• Loganiaceae
• Malpighiaceae
• Meliaceae
• Moraceae
• Musaceae
• Myrtaceae
• Olacaceae
• Oxalidaceae
• Passifloraceae
• Rubiaceae
• Rutaceae
• Sapotaceae
• Solanaceae

For a full list of recorded hosts see Hancock et al. 2000; Leblanc et al. 2004; Leblanc et al. 2012.

Major commercial hosts

• Mangifera indica (mango)
• Psidium guajava (guava)
• Citrus species (citrus)
• Syzygium malaccense (malay-apple)
• Averrhoa carambola (carambola)
• Carica papaya (papaw)

Distribution

Widely distributed in Papua New Guinea and across the Bismark Archipelago to the Solomon Islands, and established in the Torres Strait and northern Queensland as far south as Townsville (Royer et al. 2016; Drew and Romig 2013).

This is an exotic pest species that was detected at the tip of Queensland in the 1970s. It appears to have reached the limit of its spread south to Townsville without any controls due to climatic limitations (Royer et al. 2016).

OCEANIA – Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Nauru, Solomon Is., Moluccas, West Papua, Papua New Guinea, Torres Strait and Australia (north Queensland).

Similar species

Bactrocera frauenfeldi is similar to B. albistrigata but differs in having dark postpronotal lobes (though some specimens can have red-brown ppn. lobes). B. albistrigata was regarded as a synonym of B. frauenfeldi by Hardy and Adachi 1954.

It is similar to B. trilineola but differs in having lateral vittae present and facial spots instead of a facial mask.

It is similar to B. kirki but differs in having dark ppn. lobes, lateral vittae present and a distinct band on the wing (instead of a tinge around r-m and dm-cu).

It is similar to B. psidii but differs in having dark ppn. lobes, a medial line and lateral bands on terga III-V, legs with dark patterning and a distinct band on the wing (instead of a tinge around r-m and dm-cu).

Pest Status

• Bactrocera frauenfeldi was detected on the northernmost part of mainland Queensland in 1974 and had spread to Townsville by the 1997. It has not spread further since despite there being no containment measures. While it occurs in high numbers in Cairns it is rarely found in Townsville, and this seems to be the natural southernmost limit for this species (Royer et al. 2016).

Attractant/Lure

Cue-group. Melolure (raspberry ketone formate) was found to be a stronger attractant for this species in north Queensland (Royer 2015).