Fruit Flies: Challenges and Opportunities to Stem the Tide of Global Invasions.

Global trade in fresh fruit and vegetables, intensification of human mobility, and climate change facilitate fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) invasions. Life-history traits, environmental stress response, dispersal stress, and novel genetic admixtures contribute to their establishment and spread. Tephritids are among the most frequently intercepted taxa at ports of entry. In some countries, supported by the rules-based trade framework, a remarkable amount of biosecurity effort is being arrayed against the range expansion of tephritids. Despite this effort, fruit flies continue to arrive in new jurisdictions, sometimes triggering expensive eradication responses. Surprisingly, scant attention has been paid to biosecurity in the recent discourse about new multilateral trade agreements. Much of the available literature on managing tephritid invasions is focused on a limited number of charismatic (historically high-profile) species, and the generality of many patterns remains speculative.

Distribution and host ranges of Ceratitis rosa and Ceratitis quilicii (Diptera: Tephritidae) in South Africa.

Two fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) species of economic importance: Ceratitis rosa Karsch and Ceratitis quilicii De Meyer, Mwatawala & Virgilio are present in South Africa. The two species were considered as one species prior to 2016, but were subsequently separated. In this study, the distribution and abundance of the two species were quantified in seven provinces in South Africa through trapping with Enriched Ginger Oil as an attractant. Trapping was conducted over three seasons across two years (2020 and 2021): late summer, autumn-winter, and spring-early summer. Host ranges of the two species were investigated by fruit sampling in and outside of trapping sites. Ceratitis quilicii was more widely distributed than C. rosa with the latter being recorded in only three north-eastern provinces. There were geographical limits for both species with no records of them in Northern Cape Province. Catches of C. quilicii were higher in summer with average temperatures varying from 15 to 27°C while for C. rosa, catches remained low and consistent between seasons. Ceratitis quilicii catches decreased at lower rates than those of C. rosa at temperatures below 15°C. The two species were reared from 13 plant species from nine families. Four of these hosts were infested by both C. quilicii and C. rosa in the same province where they occurred. Preferred hosts of the two species belonged to the Myrtaceae family. The characterisation of the distribution, abundance and host ranges of these pests will provide a baseline for pest status determination and implementation of management actions.

Phylogenomic resolution of the Ceratitis FARQ complex (Diptera: Tephritidae).

The Ceratitis FARQ complex (formerly FAR complex) includes four frugivorous tephritids, Ceratitis fasciventris, C. anonae, C. rosa and C. quilicii, the latter two causing important agricultural losses in Africa. Although FARQ species can be identified on the basis of subtle morphological differences, they cannot be resolved as monophyletic when trying phylogenetic tree reconstructions based on mitochondrial or nuclear gene fragments except for microsatellites. In this study, we used mitogenome and genome-wide SNPs to investigate the phylogenetic relationship within the complex as well as between all four Ceratitis subgenera. The analysis of 13 species supported the monophyly of the Ceratitis subgenera Ceratitis, Ceratalaspis, Pardalaspis, and recovered Pterandrus as paraphyletic but could not properly resolve species within the FARQ complex. Conversely, gene and species tree reconstructions based on 785,484 genome-wide SNPs could consistently resolve the FARQ taxa and provide insights into their phylogenetic relationships. Gene flow was detected by TreeMix analysis from C. quilicii to C. fasciventris, suggesting the existence of introgression events in the FARQ complex. Our results suggest that genome-wide SNPs represent a suitable tool for the molecular diagnosis of FARQ species and could possibly be used to develop rapid diagnostic methods or to trace the origins of intercepted samples.

First mitochondrial genomes of five hoverfly species of the genus Eristalinus (Diptera: Syrphidae).

The hoverfly genus Eristalinus (Diptera, Syrphidae) contains many widespread pollinators. The majority of the species of Eristalinus occur in the Afrotropics and their molecular systematics still needs to be investigated. This study presents the first complete and annotated mitochondrial genomes for five species of Eristalinus. They were obtained by high-throughput sequencing of total genomic DNA. The total length of the mitogenomes varied between 15 757 and 16 245 base pairs. Gene composition, positions, and orientation were shared across species, and were identical to those observed for other Diptera. Phylogenetic analyses (maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference) based on the 13 protein coding and both rRNA genes suggested that the subgenus Eristalinus was paraphyletic with respect to the subgenus Eristalodes. An analysis of the phylogenetic informativeness of all protein coding and rRNA genes suggested that NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 (nad5), cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1, nad4, nad2, cytochrome b, and 16S rRNA genes are the most promising mitochondrial molecular markers to result in supported phylogenetic hypotheses of the genus. In addition to the five complete mitogenomes currently available for hoverflies, the five mitogenomes published here will be useful for broader molecular phylogenetic analyses among hoverflies.

Taxonomy, Ecology, and Management of Native and Exotic Fruit Fly Species in Africa.

Horticulture is one of the most important agricultural subsectors in Africa, providing income, creating employment opportunities, and enhancing food and nutritional security. However, tephritid fruit flies are responsible for both direct and indirect losses, with alien invasive species often having the most severe ecological and economic impact. In the past 20 years, systematic analysis of tephritids has provided comparative information on taxonomy, synonymy, and character-state differentiation. New molecular techniques are now available for identifying species, reconstructing phylogenies, and studying population genetic structures. Research on biology, host range and shifts, thermotolerance, and demography has provided useful information for developing predictive and ecological niche models to guide management methods. In recent years, the responses of various species to attractants have been documented. Several suppression methods, including the release of coevolved parasitoid species targeting invasives, have been promoted within the context of integrated pest management, leading to improvement in the quality and quantity of fruits and vegetables produced. However, there is still the need for wide-scale availability of these technologies to smallholder growers across Africa.

Anchored enrichment dataset for true flies (order Diptera) reveals insights into the phylogeny of flower flies (family Syrphidae).

BACKGROUND: Anchored hybrid enrichment is a form of next-generation sequencing that uses oligonucleotide probes to target conserved regions of the genome flanked by less conserved regions in order to acquire data useful for phylogenetic inference from a broad range of taxa. Once a probe kit is developed, anchored hybrid enrichment is superior to traditional PCR-based Sanger sequencing in terms of both the amount of genomic data that can be recovered and effective cost. Due to their incredibly diverse nature, importance as pollinators, and historical instability with regard to subfamilial and tribal classification, Syrphidae (flower flies or hoverflies) are an ideal candidate for anchored hybrid enrichment-based phylogenetics, especially since recent molecular phylogenies of the syrphids using only a few markers have resulted in highly unresolved topologies. Over 6200 syrphids are currently known and uncovering their phylogeny will help us to understand how these species have diversified, providing insight into an array of ecological processes, from the development of adult mimicry, the origin of adult migration, to pollination patterns and the evolution of larval resource utilization. RESULTS: We present the first use of anchored hybrid enrichment in insect phylogenetics on a dataset containing 30 flower fly species from across all four subfamilies and 11 tribes out of 15. To produce a phylogenetic hypothesis, 559 loci were sampled to produce a final dataset containing 217,702 sites. We recovered a well resolved topology with bootstrap support values that were almost universally >95 %. The subfamily Eristalinae is recovered as paraphyletic, with the strongest support for this hypothesis to date. The ant predators in the Microdontinae are sister to all other syrphids. Syrphinae and Pipizinae are monophyletic and sister to each other. Larval predation on soft-bodied hemipterans evolved only once in this family. CONCLUSIONS: Anchored hybrid enrichment was successful in producing a robustly supported phylogenetic hypothesis for the syrphids. Subfamilial reconstruction is concordant with recent phylogenetic hypotheses, but with much higher support values. With the newly designed probe kit this analysis could be rapidly expanded with further sampling, opening the door to more comprehensive analyses targeting problem areas in syrphid phylogenetics and ecology.

Higher phylogeny of frugivorous flies (Diptera, Tephritidae, Dacini): localised partition conflicts and a novel generic classification.

The phylogenetic relationships within and among subtribes of the fruit fly tribe Dacini (Ceratitidina, Dacina, Gastrozonina) were investigated by sequencing four mitochondrial and one nuclear gene fragment. Bayesian, maximum likelihood and maximum parsimony analyses were implemented on two datasets. The first, aiming at obtaining the strongest phylogenetic signal (yet, having lower taxon coverage), consisted of 98 vouchers and 2338 concatenated base pairs (bp). The second, aiming at obtaining the largest taxonomic coverage (yet, providing lower resolution), included 159 vouchers and 1200 concatenated bp. Phylogenetic relationships inferred by different tree reconstruction methods were largely congruent and showed a general agreement between concatenated tree topologies. Yet, local conflicts in phylogenetic signals evidenced a number of critical sectors in the phylogeny of Dacini fruit flies. All three Dacini subtribes were recovered as monophyletic. Yet, within the subtribe Ceratitidina only Perilampsis and Capparimyia formed well-resolved monophyletic groups while Ceratitis and Trirhithrum did not. Carpophthoromyia was paraphyletic because it included Trirhithrum demeyeri and Ceratitis connexa. Complex phylogenetic relationships and localised conflict in phylogenetic signals were observed within subtribe Dacina with (a) Dacus, (b) Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) and (c) all other Bactrocera species forming separate clades. The subgenus Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) is therefore raised to generic rank (Zeugodacus Hendel stat. nov.). Additionally, Bactrocera subgenera grouped under the Zeugodacus group should be considered under new generic combinations. Although there are indications that Zeugodacus and Dacus are sister groups, the exact relationship between Zeugodacus stat. nov., Dacus and Bactrocera still needs to be properly resolved.

Development of a multi-entry identification key for economically important fruit fly larvae (Diptera, Tephritidae, Dacinae).

Identification of fruit fly larvae is difficult due to the limited morphological characteristics present. However, this is the stage at which fruit flies are intercepted at ports of entry through horticultural imports. Molecular tools are useful but are time-consuming and expensive compared to morphological identifications. This project aims to use available information from the literature and our own research to build a multi-entry identification key for thirteen tephritid species and species groups that are of economic concern for the European Union. Third-instar larvae were obtained from different regions and hosts. Thirteen species or representatives of species groups were obtained, including Ceratitis, Dacus, Bactrocera and Zeugodacus spp. The cephalopharyngeal skeletons were dissected out, cleared in a 10% NaOH solution, dehydrated and mounted in Euparal on glass slides. Images of at least 20 larvae/species were captured using a compound microscope fitted with a camera. Measurements were taken of the mounted mandibles and the number of tubules and their position in the anterior spiracles in relation to the cephalic skeleton were noted. Differences between morphometric parameters were tested via ANOVA and verified using discriminant function analysis. A matrix was compiled including nine characters for which significant inter-specific differentiation was preliminarily detected. The key was converted into a mobile application by LucID.

Impact of cucurbit crop management techniques on the foraging behavior of honeybees and hoverflies in Morogoro, Tanzania.

BACKGROUND: Poor agricultural practices have drastically threatened insect pollinators' biodiversity. Little is known in Tanzania about how different agricultural practices affect pollinators' foraging behavior. This study investigated the effects of the agroecological zone, season, cucurbit species and management practices on visitation frequency, visitation rate and time spent on cucurbit flowers by five pollinator species viz. Apis mellifera, Eristalinus megacephalus, Mesembrius caffer, Paragus borbonicus and Toxomerus floralis. The experiment was designed as a 5 × 3 × 3 × 2 × 2 factorial arrangement in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. GAMOUR-Agroecology was tested against conventional practices and untreated control. RESULTS: This study revealed significant effects of agroecological zone × season × cucurbit species × management practice on pollinators' visitation frequency (p = 0.007) and time spent on flowers (p = 0.005). Also, agroecological zone × season × cucurbit species × pollinator species significantly (p < 0.0001) affected pollinators' visitation frequency. Agroecological zones × season × cucurbit species × cucurbits management practices × pollinators significantly (p = 0.001) affected pollinators' visitation rate. Apis mellifera was the most frequent visitor in Cucurbita moschata plots treated with GAMOUR- Agroecology in the plateau zone, also, visited higher number of Cucumis sativus plots under GAMOUR-Agroecology practices in the mountainous zone during the October-November season. Furthermore, it has been found that pollinators spent much in cucurbit flowers on plots with GAMOUR-Agroecology practices and control. CONCLUSIONS: Pollinators' foraging behavior were enhanced by GAMOUR-Agroecology practices. Therefore, this study recommended that cucurbit growers should consider management practices that positively influence pollinator foraging activities for sustainable cucurbit production.

Evidence that recent climatic changes have expanded the potential geographical range of the Mediterranean fruit fly.

The species distributions migration poleward and into higher altitudes in a warming climate is especially concerning for economically important insect pest species, as their introduction can potentially occur in places previously considered unsuitable for year-round survival. We explore the expansion of the climatically suitable areas for a horticultural pest, the Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly) Ceratitis capitata (Diptera, Tephritidae), with an emphasis on Europe and California. We reviewed and refined a published CLIMEX model for C. capitata, taking into consideration new records in marginal locations, with a particular focus on Europe. To assess the model fit and to aid in interpreting the meaning of the new European distribution records, we used a time series climate dataset to explore the temporal patterns of climate suitability for C. capitata from 1970 to 2019. At selected bellwether sites in Europe, we found statistically significant trends in increasing climate suitability, as well as a substantial northward expansion in the modelled potential range. In California, we also found a significant trend of northward and altitudinal expansion of areas suitable for C. capitata establishment. These results provide further evidence of climate change impacts on species distributions and the need for innovative responses to increased invasion threats.

Anna Karenina as a promoter of microbial diversity in the cosmopolitan agricultural pest Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Diptera, Tephritidae).

Gut microbial communities are critical in determining the evolutive success of fruit fly phytophagous pests (Diptera, Tephritidae), facilitating their adaptation to suboptimal environmental conditions and to plant allelochemical defences. An important source of variation for the microbial diversity of fruit flies is represented by the crop on which larvae are feeding. However, a "crop effect" is not always the main driver of microbial patterns, and it is often observed in combination with other and less obvious processes. In this work, we aim at verifying if environmental stress and, by extension, changing environmental conditions, can promote microbial diversity in Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett), a cosmopolitan pest of cucurbit crops. With this objective, 16S rRNA metabarcoding was used to test differences in the microbial profiles of wild fly populations in a large experimental setup in Eastern Central Tanzania. The analysis of 2,973 unique ASV, which were assigned to 22 bacterial phyla, 221 families and 590 putative genera, show that microbial α diversity (as estimated by Abundance Coverage Estimator, Faith's Phylogenetic Diversity, Shannon-Weiner and the Inverse Simpson indexes) as well as ß microbial diversity (as estimated by Compositional Data analysis of ASVs and of aggregated genera) significantly change as the species gets closer to its altitudinal limits, in farms where pesticides and agrochemicals are used. Most importantly, the multivariate dispersion of microbial patterns is significantly higher in these stressful environmental conditions thus indicating that Anna Karenina effects contribute to the microbial diversity of Z. cucurbitae. The crop effect was comparably weaker and detected as non-consistent changes across the experimental sites. We speculate that the impressive adaptive potential of polyphagous fruit flies is, at least in part, related to the Anna Karenina principle, which promotes stochastic changes in the microbial diversity of fly populations exposed to suboptimal environmental conditions.

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification of economically important Ceratitis species (Diptera: Tephritidae).

Ceratitis is an economically important genus of fruit flies that originated in Africa, has a wide host range, and causes serious economic losses due to its invasive damage. As a result, it is critical to identify them accurately and quickly in the world. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), as one of the representatives of isothermal amplification technology, has been widely used in the rapid nucleic acid detection of human pathogens and has shown its advantages in the identification of insect agricultural pests. In this study, using the mitochondrial cox1 and cob genes as target genes, the rapid molecular identification of the Ceratitis FARQ complex, C. cosyra, and C. capitata was realized based on LAMP. The experimental conditions optimization results showed that F3/B3:FIP/BIP = 1:8 was the optimal primer concentration ratio and 63 °C was the optimal reaction temperature. The sensitivity of the primers obtained in this study can reach up to 0.01 ng/µl DNA. A loop-mediated isothermal amplification identification technology system was established based on rapid, rough DNA extraction and visual detection of Ceratitis economically important fruit flies. The positive reaction system changed from pink to khaki by visual detection. The identification flow can be completed within 1 hour, including sample processing, DNA extraction, and LAMP visual detection.

Bactrocera dorsalis in the Indian Ocean: A tale of two invasions.

An increasing number of invasive fruit fly pests are colonizing new grounds. With this study, we aimed to uncover the invasion pathways of the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis into the islands of the Indian Ocean. By using genome-wide SNP data and a multipronged approach consisting of PCA, ancestry analysis, phylogenetic inference, and kinship networks, we were able to resolve two independent invasion pathways. A western invasion pathway involved the stepping-stone migration of B. dorsalis from the east African coast into the Comoros, along Mayotte and into Madagascar with a decreasing genetic diversity. The Mascarene islands (Reunion and Mauritius), on the contrary, were colonized directly from Asia and formed a distinct cluster. The low nucleotide diversity suggests that only a few genotypes invaded the Mascarenes. The presence of many long runs of homozygosity (ROH) in the introduced populations is indicative of population bottlenecks, with evidence of a more severe bottleneck for populations along the western migration pathway than on the Mascarene islands. More strict phytosanitary regulations are recommended in order to prevent the further spread of B. dorsalis.

Genomes of the cosmopolitan fruit pest Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae) reveal its global invasion history and thermal adaptation.

INTRODUCTION: The oriental fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis is one of the most destructive agricultural pests worldwide, with highly debated species delimitation, origin, and global spread routes. OBJECTIVES: Our study intended to (i) resolve the taxonomic uncertainties between B. dorsalis and B. carambolae, (ii) reveal the population structure and global invasion routes of B. dorsalis across Asia, Africa, and Oceania, and (iii) identify genomic regions that are responsible for the thermal adaptation of B. dorsalis. METHODS: Based on a high-quality chromosome-level reference genome assembly, we explored the population relationship using a genome-scale single nucleotide polymorphism dataset generated from the resequencing data of 487 B. dorsalis genomes and 25 B. carambolae genomes. Genome-wide association studies and silencing using RNA interference were used to identify and verify the candidate genes associated with extreme thermal stress. RESULTS: We showed that B. dorsalis originates from the Southern India region with three independent invasion and spread routes worldwide: (i) from Northern India to Northern Southeast Asia, then to Southern Southeast Asia; (ii) from Northern India to Northern Southeast Asian, then to China and Hawaii; and (iii) from Southern India toward the African mainland, then to Madagascar, which is mainly facilitated by human activities including trade and immigration. Twenty-seven genes were identified by a genome-wide association study to be associated with 11 temperature bioclimatic variables. The Cyp6a9 gene may enhance the thermal adaptation of B. dorsalis and thus boost its invasion, which tended to be upregulated at a hardening temperature of 38 °C. Functional verification using RNA interference silencing against Cyp6a9, led to the specific decrease in Cyp6a9 expression, reducing the survival rate of dsRNA-feeding larvae exposed to extreme thermal stress of 45 °C after heat hardening treatments in B. dorsalis. CONCLUSION: This study provides insights into the evolutionary history and genetic basis of temperature adaptation in B. dorsalis.

Indigenous and invasive fruit fly diversity along an altitudinal transect in Eastern Central Tanzania.

The relative abundance of indigenous and invasive frugivorous fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) was evaluated spatially and temporally along an altitudinal transect between 581-1650 m in the Uluguru Mountains near Morogoro, Tanzania. The polyphagous invasive fruit fly Bactrocera invadens Drew, Tsuruta, and White and the indigenous fruit fly Ceratitis rosa Karsch show a similar temporal pattern, but are largely separated spatially, with B. invadens being abundant at lower elevation and C. rosa predominant at higher elevation. The polyphagous indigenous C. cosyra (Walker) coincides with B. invadens but shows an inverse temporal pattern. The cucurbit feeders B. cucurbitae (Coquillett) and Dacus bivittatus (Bigot) show a similar temporal pattern, but the former is restricted to lower elevations. Host availability and climatic differences seem to be the determining factors to explain the differences in occurrence and abundance in time and space.

Eating eggplants as a cucurbit feeder: Dietary shifts affect the gut microbiome of the melon fly Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Diptera, Tephritidae).

While contemporary changes in feeding preferences have been documented in phytophagous insects, the mechanisms behind these processes remain to be fully clarified. In this context, the insect gut microbiome plays a central role in adaptation to novel host plants. The cucurbit frugivorous fruit fly Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Diptera, Tephritidae) has occasionally been reported on "unconventional" host plants from different families, including Solanaceae. In this study, we focus on wild parental (F0 ) adults and semiwild first filial (F1 ) larvae of Z. cucurbitae from multiple sites in La Réunion and explore how the gut microbiome composition changes when this fly is feeding on a noncucurbit host (Solanum melongena). Our analyses show nonobvious gut microbiome responses following the F0 -F1 host shift and the importance of not just diet but also local effects, which heavily affected the diversity and composition of microbiomes. We identified the main bacterial genera responsible for differences between treatments. These data further stress the importance of a careful approach when drawing general conclusions based on laboratory populations or inadequately replicated field samples.

MEMO: Monitoring of exotic mosquitoes in Belgium.

'MEMO: Monitoring of Exotic MOsquitoes in Belgium' is a sampling event dataset published by the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp, Belgium. It forms part of the early detection of exotic mosquito species (EMS) along high-risk introduction routes in Belgium, where data are collected at defined points of entry (PoEs) using a standardised protocol. The MEMO dataset contains mosquito sampling counts performed between 2017 and 2020. MEMO+2020, an extension of the MEMO dataset, contains only Aedes albopictus mosquito trap counts performed in 2020. Here, we present these data published as a standardised Darwin Core archive, which includes, for each sampling event, an eventID, date, location and sampling protocol (in the event core); and an occurrenceID for each occurrence (tube), the number of collected individuals per tube, species status (present/absent), information on the identification and scientific name (in the occurrence extension).

Discrepancies between subgeneric classification and molecular phylogeny of Ceratitis (Diptera: Tephritidae), can the evolution of host use provide some clues?

Using molecular data from three protein encoding genes and 49 taxa (98 specimens from 20 African countries), we provide an extended phylogeny of Ceratitis and investigate the evolution of stenophagy across clades. Bayesian tree reconstructions support previously proposed monophyletic lineages (Pardalaspis, Pterandrus section A, Pterandrus section B+Ceratitis sensu stricto) and reveal the occurrence of two new monophyletic groups including Ceratalaspis/Hoplolophomyia (viz. Cl(A), and Cl(B)+H). The reconstruction of ancestral character states shows that stenophagy evolved repeatedly and independently in five different clades (Podocarpus, Solanum, Strychnos, Tabernaemontana and Vepris feeders). The evolution of feeding preferences is closely related to the phylogenetic patterns of Ceratalaspis/Hoplolophomyia whose sections include either polyphagous species (Cl(A)) or stenophagous taxa (Cl(B)+H) that are further subdivided in Vepris and Solanum feeders. The evolution of stenophagy in the genus Ceratits appears as the result of a process leading to the exploitation of "unconventional" fruits (viz. toxic and/or not fleshy) and involving either metabolic adaptation to toxic plant compounds and/or the capability of penetrating fruits with thick cuticles.

Effects of male lure dispensers and trap types for monitoring of Ceratitis capitata and Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae).

BACKGROUND: Attractant-based trapping is used in the establishment of pest-free areas and areas of low pest prevalence for fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae). Male lures are commonly used attractants in fruit fly trapping. In this study, the effects of male lure dispensers, traps and combinations of dispensers and traps on monitoring of two fruit fly pests, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) and Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), were investigated in South Africa. RESULTS: In the male-lure-based trapping systems evaluated, trimedlure (TML) for C. capitata and methyl eugenol (ME) for B. dorsalis, the type of dispenser affected catches for both species. Higher catches of B. dorsalis males were recorded in bucket traps baited with a dispenser containing 15 g ME compared with traps baited with dispensers containing either 4 g ME or 2 g ME. Catches of C. capitata males were higher with dispensers containing TML than those with TML plus extender (Capilure®). The type of trap used with TML also influenced catches of C. capitata with higher numbers recorded in yellow Delta trap compared with the Sensus bucket trap. CONCLUSIONS: Dispensers with higher ME loadings are more effective for monitoring of B. dorsalis. The yellow Delta trap baited with TML (without extender) would be an effective monitoring system for C. capitata. Fruit fly prevalence levels as determined by specific trapping systems should be related to their efficiency in terms of catches of the target pests. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry.

First record of the West Nile virus bridge vector Culex modestus Ficalbi (Diptera: Culicidae) in Belgium, validated by DNA barcoding.

A thorough knowledge of the presence and spatio-temporal distribution patterns of vector species are pivotal to assess the risk of mosquito-borne diseases in Europe. In 2018, a Culex larva was collected during routine monitoring activities to intercept exotic Aedes mosquito species in the port of Antwerp (Kallo, Belgium). The larva, collected from a pond in mid-September, was morphologically identified as Culex modestus, and this identification was subsequently confirmed by COI barcoding. It is the first confirmed record of this West Nile virus bridge vector in Belgium. The present study also demonstrates the value of DNA-based identification techniques to validate the presence of potential vector species.