2 new species of fruit flies found in Ri-Bhoi

SHILLONG, April 4: Two new species of fruit fly have been reported for the first time from Ri-Bhoi district by a team of researchers led by Dr. Kennedy Ningthoujam, Assistant Professor in Entomology, College of Post Graduate Studies in Agricultural Sciences, CAU (Imphal), Umiam, and Dr. KJ David, Senior Scientist, ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Bengaluru, Karnataka.
The two newly-discovered species have been named as Zeugodacus umiam David & Kennedy, derived from the place of collection (Umiam), and Zeugodacus nasivittatus David & Abhishek where the species name nasivittatus is derived from Latin words nasivitta which means nose-shaped vitta.
The genus Zeugodacus possess shallow/flat posterior emargination of sternite 5 in males, posterior lobe of lateral surstylus much longer than anterior lobe and patterned acrophallus. The discovery was published in the reputed international journal ZooKeys in January 2024.
Earlier in 2023, Dr. Kennedy and Dr. David along with team members Dr. Mahesh Pathak, Venkateshaiah Abhishek, Cheday Bhutia Hissay, Sunita Chetry, Niladri Bihari Mohapatra, Jyotim Gogoi and Kisan Rymbai also documented six species of fruit fly reported for the first time in India viz., Bactrocera lambokensis, Bactrocera wuzhishana, Bactrocera gambokensis, Erectovena desperata, Phorelliosoma hilaratum, and Paraxarnuta anephelobasis and two species for the first time in Meghalaya viz., Bactrocera (Parazeugodacus) abbreviata and Dacus (Mellesis) vijaysegarani.
The researcher have acknowledge Prof D Thakuria, Dean, CAU-CPGSAS, Umiam, for his continuous guidance and support for carrying out the research work.