| # Pest fruit flies of the world |

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

### Trirhithrum nigerrimum (Bezzi)

Ceratitis nigra var. nigerrima Bezzi, Ceratitis patagiata Enderlein

Body. Body plump; predominantly black or dark fuscous.

Head. Number of frontal bristles two pairs. Number of orbital bristles two pairs. Anterior orbital bristle of male normal, unmodified. Posterior orbital bristles reclinate; acuminate. 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 acuminate. Postocular bristles acuminate; normal. Genal bristle present. Head higher than long. Male and female head width the same. Frontofacial angle about equal to a right angle and angular. Face concave, or flat; without transverse sulcus, antennal grooves, or carina; about as long as frons; vertical; without dark marks. Parafacial spot absent. Frons and parafacial with small silvery markings. Fronto-orbital plate setulose. Frontal stripe setulose. Eye round, about as high or slightly higher than long. Antenna considerably shorter than face. Scape, pedicel, and first flagellomere all relatively short. First flagellomere shorter than face; pointed dorsoapically. Arista longer than first flagellomere; plumose, with hairs at least half as long as first flagellomere width; hairs both dorsal and ventral. Proboscis short, capitate.

Thorax. Inner scapular bristle present and distinguishable from surrounding vestiture; dark. Outer scapular bristle present and distinguishable from surrounding vestiture; dark. 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 aligned with postsutural supra-alar bristles or slightly behind. Intra-alar bristle present, well developed, similar to postalar bristle. Intrapostalar bristles absent. Number of scutellar bristles two pairs. Apical scutellar bristles 50%-90% as long as basals. Anterior notopleural bristle present. Posterior notopleural bristle(s) acuminate. Number of outstanding anepisternal bristles one. Katepisternal bristles present. Anepisternal bristles dark, brown to black. Long, erect setulae on laterotergite absent. Scutal setulae acuminate, mixed dark and pale. Scutellum sparsely setulose. Setulae on scutellum long, erect; unicolorous, acuminate. Transverse suture with the lateral branches wide apart. Complete sclerotized postcoxal metathoracic bridge absent or semimembranous. Scutum fuscous, or black; 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, brown. 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 black. Mediotergite uniformly brown, or uniformly black. Scutum microtrichia in discrete pattern due to density differences, or microtrichia in discrete pattern due to bare areas or completely absent. Dorsum of scutellum convex and swollen. Scutellum normal; without a dark and pale pattern (at most a narrow dark basal line); with no isolated dark spots; entirely black.

Legs. Femora slender. Fore femur with regular bristles; without ventral spines; with 1 to 3 posterodorsal and 1 posteroventral rows of bristles only. Mid femur and hind femur without spine-like bristles. Middle leg of male without feathering. Femora all entirely of one color; dark mark on fore femur 100% of length of femur; dark mark on middle femur 100% of length of femur; dark mark on hind femur 100% of length of femur.

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 cross-banded, or costal-banded. Crossbanded wing patterns Rhagoletis-like, or Ceratitis-like. Wing pattern mostly brownish. Dark longitudinal streaks through basal cells absent. Costal band complete from wing base to beyond R4+5. Apex of costal band not distinctly expanded. Costal band extending below R4+5; pterostigma darker. Crossvein r-m covered by a major crossband. Crossvein dm-cu covered by a major crossband which reaches posterior margin of wing (may be faint). Crossveins r-m and dm-cu both covered by a single crossband. Cell r2+3 apical to r-m with large hyaline area. Cell r1 and r2+3 without darker spots within the pattern. Intercalary band absent. Subbasal crossband present. Subbasal and discal crossbands joined (entirely fused). Marginal hyaline area in cell r1 absent or indistinct. Anterior apical crossband contiguous with costa over entire length, without marginal hyaline band or spots apically in cells r1 and r2+3, or partly to entirely separated from costa by marginal hyaline band or spots. Anterior apical band or costal band extended to vein M (male), or not extended to vein M (female). Posterior apical crossband present (female), or absent (male); fused to anterior apical band. Costal and discal bands joined on vein R4+5. Discal band transverse, or oblique in anterobasal-posteroapical direction, or absent. Discal and apical crossbands directly joined. Discal and subapical crossbands joined along anterior wing margin or along vein R4+5. Discal and subapical bands connected along vein R4+5. Subapical and anterior apical crossbands joined. Outstanding costal spine(s) at subcostal break present. Ratio of length of costal section 3 to costal section 4 0.33. Ratio of pterostigmal length to width 1.5. Vein R1 dorsal setation without bare section opposite end of vein Sc. Vein Rs dorsal setation setulose. Vein R2+3 generally straight. Anteriorly-directed accessory vein emerging from R2+3 absent. Vein R4+5 dorsal setation dense over at least proximal section; 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 middle of cell dm. Cell bm narrow, triangular; ratio of length to width 3.5; ratio of width to cell cup width 1. Vein M distally straight. Cell dm widens apically gradually from base. Posterodistal corner of cell dm distinctly acute. Cell cup extension or lobe present, vein CuA2 abruptly bent; shorter than vein A1+CuA2; with parallel margins.

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 normally concealed; shorter than 5th. Abdominal setulae mixed dark and pale acuminate. Abdominal microtomentum a delicate reticulation. Abdominal sternite 5 of male broad, at least 2x wider than long. Posterior margin of sternite 5 of male with shallow posterior concavity. Abdominal tergites 3–5 predominantly black. 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 moderately long outer surstyli, which are up to about half as long as epandrium; lateral view with outer surstyli distinctly narrower than epandrium, clearly differentiated.

Female terminalia. Syntergosternite 7 straight; shorter than preabdomen; base without a laterally projecting flap; flattened. Ratio of syntergosternite 7 to abdominal tergite 5 1.5. Dorsobasal scales of eversible membrane about as large as other scales (?). Aculeus tip gradually tapering, needle-like, with flat cross-section; fused to main part of aculeus, not movable; 0% serrated; not serrate.

Miscellaneous. Male attractant: none known.

Afrotropical. Ghana & Niger E to Uganda, S to South Africa, Comoros Is.

Dacinae. Ceratitidini.

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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