New Fruitfly Species ‘Euphranta Siruvani’

Researchers have recently discovered a new species of fruit fly from the Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu. The species was found near Siruvani which is an ecological hotspot in the Western Ghats. The species is also named after Siruvani.

Key Points

• The fruit fly has been named as‘Euphranta Siruvani’.
• The researchers identified this fruit fly belonging to the family Tephritidae from a non-forest area near Siruvani.
• The discovery paper was authored by L. Hancock from the UK, K.J. David and K. Sachin from National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Bengaluru, H. Sankararaman from Annamalai University, and Sudhir Singh from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun.
• This fruit fly differs from the other species of Euphranta by a ‘V’ shaped black band on the wing and a subapical band connected to the apical black patch.
• This fruit fly lays eggs in fruits and the larvae feed on the pulp. More information about the species is yet to be found.
• So far, 104 species of fruit fly from the genus Euphranta are known to be found across the world. Out of these 104 species, 14 are found in India. This new discovery of fruit fly is a new addition to the number of species.
• The findings of the new discovery were published in the journal Zootaxa.

Fairy Fly

Along with the fruit fly, Annamalai University’s S. Manickavasagam and Sankararaman have also discovered a new fairyfly species from the Siruvani area. The species belongs to the family of Mymaridae and has been named ‘Omyomymar Hayati’. It has been named after AMU Prof. Mohammad Hayat for his contributions to the taxonomy of Indian Chalcidoidea. This discovery of fairy fly was published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa.