New host plant and distribution records of Anastrepha species (Diptera: Tephritidae) primarily from the western Amazon

Abstract

We report the results of long-term collecting efforts conducted mainly in the western Amazon region of Peru, and in Bolivia, Ecuador, Suriname, French Guiana, and Panama. Host plant and distribution records are documented for 55 plant species associated with 40 species of Anastrepha Schiner belonging to 15 species groups or unassigned to a group. We document new host records or provide detail for records recently reported in the literature with limited information and also describe the larval feeding modes within the fruit. This contributes to a better understanding of the biology of Anastrepha, facilitates phylogenetic analysis, and develops identification tools for the genus. We provide a synopsis of native host plants by Anastrepha species groups to compare the range of host plants within these groups. We report 25 plant species as hosts for the first time for 22 Anastrepha species and new distribution records for 18 Anastrepha species. We provide photographs of the fruit injury caused by larvae of 31 Anastrepha species. We report two larval feeding modes: 23 species are pulp feeders in 21 native and four exotic host plants, 11 species are seed feeders in 12 native host plants, and four species feed on both pulp and seeds of three native host plants. We report the first host plant record, two species of Sapotaceae, for the speciosa group, which is among the most ancestral clades of Anastrepha. We present and discuss our results in evolutionary terms following the most recently inferred Anastrepha phylogeny.