| # Pest fruit flies of the world |

L.E. Carroll, I.M. White, A. Freidberg, A.L. Norrbom, M.J. Dallwitz, and F.C. Thompson

### Paracantha cultaris (Coquillett)

Trypeta cultaris Coquillett

Body. Body predominantly orangish to brown.

Head. Number of frontal bristles three pairs. Number of orbital bristles three or more pairs (all pale and lanceolate). Anterior orbital bristle of male normal, unmodified. Posterior orbital bristles reclinate; lanceolate and pale (all stubby). Ocellar bristles long, about as long as frontal bristles. Postocellar bristles present. With both inner and outer vertical bristles. Outer vertical, postvertical and postocellar bristles all lanceolate and pale (all stubby, but some postverticals dark). Postocular bristles intermixed acuminate and lanceolate; normal. Genal bristle present. Head about as long as high. Male and female head width the same. Frontofacial angle about equal to a right angle and angular. Face concave; without transverse sulcus, antennal grooves, or carina; shorter than frons; vertical; with lateral and central dark spots. Parafacial spot present. Frons and parafacial with small silvery markings. Fronto-orbital plate setulose (slightly). Frontal stripe setulose. Eye round, about as high or slightly higher than long. Antenna about as long as face. Scape, pedicel, and first flagellomere all relatively short. First flagellomere shorter than face; pointed dorsoapically. Arista longer than first flagellomere; pubescent, with hairs about as long as greatest aristal width; hairs both dorsal and ventral. Proboscis short, capitate.

Thorax. Inner scapular bristle absent or indistinguishable from surrounding vestiture; pale. Outer scapular bristle absent or indistinguishable from surrounding vestiture; pale. Postpronotal bristle present. Presutural dorsocentral bristle absent. Presutural supra-alar bristle present. Postsutural supra-alar bristle present. Acrostichal bristle present. Postsutural dorsocentral bristle present; bristles between transverse suture and postsutural supra-alar bristles. Intra-alar bristle present, well developed, similar to postalar bristle. Intrapostalar bristles absent. Number of scutellar bristles two pairs. Apical scutellar bristles as long as basals or longer. Anterior notopleural bristle present. Posterior notopleural bristle(s) acuminate. Number of outstanding anepisternal bristles three to five (3). Katepisternal bristles present. Anepisternal bristles dark, brown to black, or pale, yellowish. Long, erect setulae on laterotergite absent. Scutal setulae lanceolate and pale. Scutellum sparsely setulose. Setulae on scutellum long, erect (3 pr.); unicolorous, acuminate. Transverse suture with the lateral branches wide apart. Complete sclerotized postcoxal metathoracic bridge absent or semimembranous. Scutum yellowish, or orange-brown (pale brown); without a large dark central stripe which broadens basally. Postpronotal lobe predominantly of the ground color. Posterior half of notopleuron same as ground color. Scutum dorsad of notopleuron of the ground color, not whitish or yellowish. Dark lyre-like pattern on scutum absent. Discrete shiny black spots on scutum absent. Median longitudinal black stripe on scutum absent. Number of pale whitish to yellow postsutural stripes zero. Area bordering scutoscutellar suture medially without dark brown spot, light colored. Discrete pale horizontal stripe along upper anepisternum absent or indistinct. Distinct pale vertical anepisternal stripe absent. Katepisternite with pale yellowish or whitish spot absent or indistinct. Transverse suture without distinct stripe or spot. Katatergite with pale yellowish or whitish spot absent or indistinct. Anatergite with pale yellowish or whitish spot absent or indistinct. Subscutellum uniformly yellowish to pale orange-brown, or yellowish to orange-brown medially, with distinct dark spots laterally. Mediotergite uniformly yellowish to orange-brown, or uniformly brown. Scutum entirely microtrichose, microtrichia evenly distributed, or at most with small presutural, medial bare area. Dorsum of scutellum flat or slightly convex, not swollen. Scutellum normal; with a dark and pale pattern; with two isolated dark spots.

Legs. Femora slender. Fore femur without ventral spines. Middle leg of male without feathering.

Wings. Wing with microtrichia covering entire wing. Cell bc microtrichia covering whole cell. Cell c microtrichia covering whole cell. Cell dm entirely microtrichose. Dense microtrichia at end of vein A1+CuA2 in male absent. Dominant wing pattern reticulate. Wing pattern mostly yellowish, or mostly brownish. Dark longitudinal streaks through basal cells absent. Crossvein dm-cu infuscated along entire length, but not reaching posterior margin of wing. Cell r2+3 apical to r-m with large hyaline area. Cell r1 and r2+3 with distinctly darker spots within dark areas of pattern. Marginal hyaline area in cell r1 present and distinct. Outstanding costal spine(s) at subcostal break present. Ratio of length of costal section 3 to costal section 4 0.33. Vein R1 dorsal setation with bare section opposite end of vein Sc. Vein Rs dorsal setation non-setulose. Vein R2+3 generally straight. Anteriorly-directed accessory vein emerging from R2+3 absent. Vein R4+5 dorsal setation on node only, or sparse, over proximal section only; ventral setation absent or only present on node or close thereafter. Distance between crossvein r-m and costa longer than r-m. R-m crossvein on cell dm at or near distal third of cell dm. Cell bm narrow, triangular; ratio of length to width 2.5. Vein M distally straight. Cell dm widens apically gradually from base. Posterodistal corner of cell dm approximately a right angle, or distinctly obtuse. Cell cup extension or lobe present, vein CuA2 abruptly bent; shorter than vein A1+CuA2; triangular.

Abdomen. Abdomen ovate or parallel sided. Abdominal tergites separate. Abdomen in lateral view flatter, more flexible. Abdominal tergite 1 broader at apex than at base; without a prominent hump laterally. Pecten of dark bristles on tergite 3 of male absent. Tergal glands on tergite 5 absent. Abdominal tergite 5 normal. 6th tergite of female exposed; longer than 5th. Abdominal setulae mixed dark and pale acuminate. Abdominal microtomentum a delicate reticulation, or absent. Abdominal sternite 5 of male less than 2x wider than long, not longer than wide. Posterior margin of sternite 5 of male with deep V-shaped posterior concavity. Abdominal tergites 3–5 predominantly yellow to orange brown. Abdominal tergites without medial dark stripe; not brown with medial T-shaped yellow mark; without isolated dark areas on lateral margins of T3-T5; without dark brown transverse bands.

Male terminalia. Epandrium in posterior view with long outer surstyli, which are more than half as long as epandrium; lateral view with outer surstyli a continuation of the epandrium.

Female terminalia. Syntergosternite 7 straight; shorter than preabdomen; base without a laterally projecting flap; flattened. Ratio of syntergosternite 7 to abdominal tergite 5 2.5. Dorsobasal scales of eversible membrane about as large as other scales. Aculeus tip pointed, with preapical shoulder (sagittate); fused to main part of aculeus, not movable; not serrate, or with large, coarse serrations.

Miscellaneous. Male attractant: none known.

Nearctic, Neotropical. Canada & USA (N to Washington, Manitoba, Nebraska & Texas) S to Costa Rica.

Tephritinae. Eutretini.

Illustrations. • Wing.

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: ‘L.E. Carroll, I.M. White, A. Freidberg, A.L. Norrbom, M.J. Dallwitz, and F.C. Thompson. 2002 onwards. Pest fruit flies of the world. Version: 2nd April 2019. delta-intkey.com’.

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