| # Pest fruit flies of the world |

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

### Zacerata asparagi Coquillett

Body. Body plump; predominantly black or dark fuscous.

Head. Number of frontal bristles three 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 undulating, convex above, concave below; with transverse sulcus; longer than frons; vertical; black. Parafacial spot absent. Frons and parafacial with small silvery markings. Fronto-orbital plate setulose. Frontal stripe non-setulose. Eye elongate, considerably higher than long. Antenna considerably longer than face. Scape, pedicel, and first flagellomere scape short, pedicel and first flagellomere elongate and subequal. First flagellomere shorter than face; rounded apically. Arista as long as first flagellomere, or shorter 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. 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 approximately aligned with or posterior to post-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 two, or three to five (2–5). Katepisternal bristles present. Anepisternal bristles dark, brown to black. Long, erect setulae on laterotergite absent. Scutal setulae acuminate and dark. Scutellum sparsely setulose. Setulae on scutellum short, decumbent; unicolorous, acuminate. Transverse suture with the lateral branches wide apart. Complete sclerotized postcoxal metathoracic bridge absent or semimembranous. Scutum 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 present. Median longitudinal black stripe on scutum absent. Number of pale whitish to yellow postsutural stripes zero. Scutum without blackish dorsocentral stripe. 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 brown, or uniformly black. Mediotergite uniformly brown, or uniformly black. Scutum microtrichia in discrete pattern due to density differences (reticulated with grey microtrichose areas). Dorsum of scutellum flat or slightly convex, not swollen. Scutellum normal; without a dark and pale pattern (at most a narrow dark basal line); with no isolated dark spots; entirely black; without mark.

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 partly bare. 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. Crossbanded wing patterns with bands extensively fused, distorted, or greatly reduced. Wing pattern mostly brownish. Dark longitudinal streaks through basal cells absent. Crossvein r-m covered by a major crossband. Crossvein dm-cu covered by a major crossband which reaches posterior margin of wing. Crossveins r-m and dm-cu not both covered by a single crossband. Cell r2+3 apical to r-m entirely infuscated. Anal band absent, or not reaching nearly to wing margin. Cell r1 and r2+3 without darker spots within the pattern. Subbasal crossband present. Subbasal and discal crossbands not joined. Marginal hyaline area in cell r1 present and distinct. Ratio of width of apical band in cell r4+5 to length of r-m 1–1.25. Anterior apical crossband contiguous with costa over entire length, without marginal hyaline band or spots apically in cells r1 and r2+3. Anterior apical band or costal band extended to vein M. Posterior apical crossband absent. Costal and discal bands not 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, or joined along vein M. Discal and subapical bands connected along vein R4+5. Subapical and anterior apical crossbands joined. Outstanding costal spine(s) at subcostal break present (small), or absent. Ratio of length of costal section 3 to costal section 4 0.03–0.1. Ratio of pterostigmal length to width 1. Vein R1 dorsal setation without bare section opposite end of vein Sc. Vein Rs dorsal setation non-setulose. Vein R2+3 strongly sinuous (slightly). Anteriorly-directed accessory vein emerging from R2+3 absent. Vein R4+5 dorsal setation 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 middle of cell dm (slightly distad of mid-discal cell). Cell bm narrow, triangular; ratio of length to width 4; ratio of width to cell cup width 1. Vein M distally straight. Cell dm widens apically suddenly and strongly, just before crossvein r-m. Posterodistal corner of cell dm distinctly acute. Cell cup extension or lobe absent, vein CuA2 not abruptly bent.

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; shorter than 5th. Abdominal setulae acuminate and dark. 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 long outer surstyli, which are more than half as long as epandrium (strongly incurved, flat); 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 4. Dorsobasal scales of eversible membrane about as large as other scales (?). Aculeus tip gradually tapering, needle-like, with flat cross-section, or pointed, with preapical shoulder; not fused to main part of aculeus, movable; 0% serrated; not serrate. Three sclerotized spermathecae. Spermathecae spherical.

Miscellaneous. Male attractant: none known.

Afrotropical. South Africa; Angola?.

Trypetinae. Zaceratini.

Illustrations. • Habitus male (dorsal), wing, female terminalia.

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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