common name: South American cucurbit fruit fly
scientific name: Anastrepha grandis (Macquart) (Insecta: Diptera: Tephritidae)
Anastrepha grandis (Macquart) (1846: 227), which exists in several South American countries and possibly Panama, attacks watermelon and other fruits of the family Cucurbitaceae. Once a pest of minor to moderate importance generally, in recent years it has become a
rather important pest. The pest status differs in each country and has changed
in the last decade. This species would seem to be potentially of economic
importance in Florida and southern Texas should it ever be introduced there. It
has been intercepted in the United States in pumpkin from Argentina and Brazil,
and one adult was found in banana debris from Panama.
Acrotoxa grandis (Macquart)
Anastrepha schineri Hendel
Anastrepha latifasciata Hering
Tephritis grandis Macquart
Trypeta grandis (Macquart)
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil (except north), Colombia, Ecuador, Panama (?), Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.
Rather large, yellow-brown, with yellow and dark-brown markings. Mesonotum 3.3 to 4.0 mm long, yellow-brown, with humerus, median stripe widening to include acrostichal bristles but not reaching scutellum, lateral stripes from just before transverse suture to side of scutellum, stripe below notopleuron, metapleuron, and scutellum except extreme base yellow; a sublateral stripe from level of humeral bristle to scutellum, broken at transverse suture, a band along scutoscutellar suture, intensified medially, and a spot on pteropleuron dark brown; metanotum blackened laterally. Macrochaetae dark brown; pile yellowish brown. No sternopleural bristle. Wing 9.0 to 10.5 mm long, the bands yellow brown, rather diffuse; costal and S bands broadly connected, and no distinct hyaline spot anterior to vein R4 + 5; distal arm of V band absent, the proximal arm not joining S band.
adult female
adult male
Female terminalia: Ovipositor sheath 5.8 to 6.2 mm long, tapering posteriorly to
apical third, which is distinctly depressed and broadened; in profile the sheath
is distinctly concave dorsally on median half and concave ventrally on apical
third. Rasper well developed, of slender, curved hooks in five or six rows.
Ovipositor slightly longer than length of ovipositor sheath, being somewhat
curved dorsoventrally to permit fitting into sheath; tip long and slender,
without serrations; extreme base slightly widened (Stone 1942).
Rasters at tip of ovipositor sheath.
ovipositor
Steyskal (l977) distinguished A. grandis from the other four species of the Grandis group as follows: Vein R3 somewhat undulant; metanotum yellow (A. bezzii Lima and A. balloui Stone); vein R3, not undulant; metanotum marked with black (A. artrigona Hendel, A. shannoni Stone, and A. grandis (Macquart)). Mesonotum not striped with black (A. atrigona); mesoscutum with black stripes (A.
shannoni and A. grandis). Mesoscutum and pleura largely black, wing with pattern darkened (A. shannoni); mesoscutum and pleura with little black, wing pattern very little darkened (A. grandis).
Citrullus lanatus (Thunberg) Matsumura& Nakai (watermelon), Cucumis sativus Linnaeus (cucumber), Cucurbita maxima Duchesne (autumn and winter squash, pumpkin),
Cucurbita pepo Linnaeus (summer and autumn pumpkin and squash, gourd,
marrow), Cucurbota moschata (Duchesne ex Lam.) Duchesne ex Poiret
("amyama," "pumpkin"), Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl. ("camasa"),
Cucumis melo L. ("honeydew melon").
It has also been known to attack common guava, Psidium guajava (Norrbom in press) The record of rearing from oranges (Greene 1934) is erroneous. Immature fruits of cucurbits apparently are preferred, but mature or nearly mature fruits of some varieties are attacked
occasionally.
Adults are easily recognized by their very large size (wing length 10 mm), long aculeus (a sharp spine jutting from beneath the margin of the eight sternite) and rather diffuse wing markings which are not of the typical Anastepha type.
Larvae can be collected from infested fruit and are very difficult to
identify to species except when reared to adults. For best larval preservation,
kill in boiling water, place in 50% isopropyl alcohol for two days, then in 75%
isopropyl alcohol. Adults may be collected on stickyboard and in baited traps.
- Enkerlin D, Laura-Garcia R, Fidel-Lopez M. 1989. p. 83-90. In Robinson AS, Hooper G (eds.), Fruit Flies, Their Biology, Natural Enemies and Control. 3A: I-xii, 1-372.
- Foote RH. 1967. Family Tephritidae. In Vanzolini, M. (ed.), A Catalogue of the Diptera of the Americas South of the United States. 57: 1-91. Dept. Zool., Sec. Agric., São Paulo, Brazil.
- Greene CT. 1934. A revision of the genus Anastrepha based on a study of the wings and on the length of the ovipositor sheath (Diptera: Trypetidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 36: 127-179.
- Macquart J. 1846. Diptères exotiques nouveaux ou peu connus. (1845) (1844): 133-364, illus. Mém. Soc. Roy. Sci., Agric., Arts Lille. (published separately as Supplément I, p. 5-238.
- Norrbom AL. (31 October 2001). Anastrepha grandis (Macquart). The Diptera site. http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/diptera/tephriti/Anastrep/grandis.htm (14 January 2002).
- Norrbom AL. Host plant database for Anastrepha and Toxotrypana (Diptera: Tephritidae: Toxotrypanini). Diptera Data Dissemination Disk 2. (in press).
- Steyskal GC. 1977. Pictorial key to species of the genus Anastrepha (Diptera: Tephritidae). (Special publication) Entomological Society of Washington 35 p.
- Stone A. 1942. The Fruitflies of the Genus Anastrepha. U.S. Department of Agriculture Miscellaneous Publication No. 439, Washington, DC. 112 p.
- White IM, Elson-Harris MM. 1994. Fruit Flies of Economic Significance: Their Identification and Bionomics. CAB International. Oxon, UK. 601 p.
Author: H.V. Weems, Jr. (retired), Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services,
Division of Plant Industry.
Originally published as DPI Entomology Circular 334. Updated for this publication.
Photographs and Graphics: Division of Plant Industry
Project Coordinator: Thomas R. Fasulo, University of Florida
Publication Number: EENY-205
Publication Date: March 2001
Copyright 2001 University of Florida
Featured Creatures
Department of Entomology and Nematology
Division of Plant Industry
Electronic Data Information Source