''Bactrocera (Bactrocera) invadens'' is the name given to
tephritid fruit flies that were introduced to
East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa:
Due to the histori ...
from
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
and subsequently invaded practically the whole of
Sub-Saharan Africa, hence the
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
name "invadens".
[Drew, Richard Arthur Ian, K. Tsuruta, and I. M. White. "A new species of pest fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae: Dacinae) from Sri Lanka and Africa." African Entomology 13.1 (2005): 149-154] It was first shown to be the same biological species as ''B. dorsalis s.s.'' by possessing identical sex pheromonal components after consumption of methyl eugenol, and also based on CO1 and rDNA sequences.
[Tan, K. H., I. Tokushima, H. Ono, and R. Nishida. 2011. Comparison of phenylpropanoid volatiles in male rectal and pheromone gland after methyl eugenol consumptions, and molecular phylogenetic relationship of four global pest fruit fly species: Bactrocera invadens, B. dorsalis, B. correcta and B. zonata. Chemoecology 21:25-33; Tan, K.H., S.L. Wee, H. Ono, and R. Nishida. 2013. Comparison of methyl eugenol metabolites, mitochondrial COI, and rDNA sequences of Bactrocera philippinensis (Diptera: Tephritidae) with those of three other major pest species within the dorsalis complex. Applied Entomology and Zoology 48: 275-282.] Subsequently, it was agreed that ''B. invadens'', ''B. papayae'' and ''B. philippinensis'' be synonymized as ''B. dorsalis''.
["Current Status Bactrocera dorsalis Complex-Clarke ... - NUCLEUS nucleus.iaea.org/.../Current%20Status%20Bactrocera%20dorsalis%20Co...and references there in."] To counteract its detrimental effects to the fruit business, the industry resorts to cold treatment in order to get rid of the
larvae
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
T ...
.
Description
*Male: Its head has a vertical length of ;
frons
Insect morphology is the study and description of the physical form of insects. The terminology used to describe insects is similar to that used for other arthropods due to their shared evolutionary history. Three physical features separate insec ...
length 1.36 times its breadth. The species is red-brown with