African fruit flies of economic importance

The key contains characters to differentiate between adults of 29 fruit fly species of the subfamily Dacinae, that are considered of economic importance to agriculture and horticulture in Sub-Sahara Africa. This key is composed within the framework of the STDF (Standards and Trade Development Facility) project F³ Fruit Fly Free: Establishment and maintenance of fruit production areas free and under low prevalence of fruit fly pests in southern Africa. It includes all major pest species of the genera Bactrocera, Ceratitis, Dacus, Trirhithrum and Zeugodacus regularly encountered in surveying, detection and pest control activities. The key provides subsets of species for different geographic regions on the continent (western, central, eastern, southern Africa) as well as the islands of the Western Indian Ocean. In addition, for each species a condensed datasheet is provided with the basic information regarding morphology, biology, host range, distribution, impact and management. Also, links to more extended information sources have been included for each species.

FUNDING AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The development of the mobile application of the key is largely funded by private sponsorships obtained for the 3rd International Meeting of TEAM (Tephritid Workers of Europe, Africa and the Middle East) that took place in Stellenbosch (April 2016) and was co-organized and hosted by Stellenbosch University. It is illustrated with high resolution images taken or cropped specifically for the purpose of the development of this key. Part of them were made within the framework of the general digitization project DIGIT, funded by the Belgian Federal Government. Digital habitus reconstructions for African species have been provided by Georg Goergen (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Cotonou Benin) and additional images by Antoine Franck (UMR PVBMT, CIRAD La Réunion). The datasheets are an updated version of datasheets composed within the framework of two network projects: The “ERAfrica_NI_027 Fruit Fly” project and the networking project “BL/37/FWI 08 FRUITFLY” funded by the Belgian Science Policy. We would like to thank the various colleagues and collaborators who contributed at various stages in the development of this key (in alphabetical order): Jonathan Brecko, John-Henry Daneel, Hélène Delatte, Antoine Franck, Georg Goergen, Joanne Lee, Aruna Manrakhan, Nikos Papadopoulos, Henriette Rasolofoarivao, Leani Serfontein, Seth Tsatsu, and Didier Van den Spiegel. Last but not least, many thanks to Matt Taylor & Damian Barnier (Lucid, Identic) for their continuous support and assistance during the different stages of the key and app development.

DISCLAIMER: The key and fact sheets are made freely accessible. The authors take, however, no responsibility for any legal, economic or agricultural consequences by consequent actions or decisions made from using this key or fact sheets. The user is solely responsible for the scientific interpretation or any regulatory decision derived from information provided in this tool. It is recommended that the user seeks a professional identification confirmation should there be any far-reaching decisions depending from identification made by using this tool.

Photograph (splash & home screen): Ceratitis capitata front view. Image copyright “A. Franck, UMR PVBMT, CIRAD”