The pumpkin fly Dacus frontalis (Diptera: Tephritidae): a new pest of curcubits in Tunisia A. Hafsi 1,2 , K. Abbes 1 , A. Harbi 1,3 , S. Ben Othmen 1 , E. Limem 1 , M. Elimem 1 , M. Ksantini 4 and B. Chermiti 1 1 High Agronomic Institute of Chott-Mariem, University of Sousse, 4042 Chott-Mariem, Sousse, Tunisia; e-mail: chermiti.ibrahim@iresa.agrinet.tn 2 UMR 53 PVBMT CIRAD, Universit e de La R eunion, P^ ole de Protection des Plantes (3P), 7 chemin de l’Irat, 97410, Saint-Pierre, Ile de la R eunion 3 Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Centro de Protecci  on Vegetal y Biotecnolog ıa, Unidad de Entomolog ıa, Carretera Moncada-N aquera km 4.5, 46113 Moncada, Valencia, Spain 4 Institut de l’Olivier Sfax, Route de l’A eroport, B.P. 1087, 3000, Sfax, Tunisia The pumpkin fly Dacus frontalis is reported in this paper for the first time in Tunisia, where it was found in several locations. It is a pest of cucurbits of economic importance and is common especially in the eastern and southern parts of Africa. D. frontalis was collected from infested cucumber fruits in the region of El-Jebil (Kairouan) and female bait traps for the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata and the olive fly Bactrocera oleae. Preliminary data from Tunisia suggest that D. frontalis is already established in four regions in which cucurbits are important crops. Brief notes on the diagnostic features for the species, its ecol- ogy and geographic distribution are given. Symptoms on cucumber from Tunisia are pre- sented. Introduction Because of its geographic position, its diverse ecological niches ranging from forest in the north to oasis in the south and probably because of the changing climate; Tunisia has been a ‘hot-spot’ for many invasive agricul- tural pests. Several exotic insect pests have been reported in Tunisia in recent years, some of them have already caused economic damage, such as the tomato moth Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Chermiti et al., 2009) and the red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) (Chebbi, 2011), while the occurrence of some others has been con- sidered as sporadic for example the black wine thrips Bregmatothrips dimorphus (Priesner) (Elimem et al., 2012). In the EPPO region, tephritid fruit flies are consid- ered to pose a major risk such as the peach fly Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) and the cucurbit fly Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) which are both included on the EPPO A1 List of pests recommended for regulation (EPPO, 2014). Although they are not on the EPPO Lists of pests recommended for regulation as quar- antine pests; many other exotic fruit flies demonstrated high invasiveness and are pests of crops grown in the region. Among these, the pumpkin fly Dacus frontalis (Becker) is already considered locally as a very serious pest of cucurbits in many countries in Africa and the Middle East (Ekesi & Billah, 2007). This paper records the first findings of the pest in Tunisia. Brief notes on diagnostic features The exact identification of this fruit fly can be delicate since it is very similar to other related species. As is the case for all Dacus species, D. frontalis adults have a pre- dominantly orange colour. All tergites are fused into a sin- gle plate with a smooth transverse line and without overlapping sclerites (Fig. 1A). In D. frontalis the basal part of the scutum has two black rounded spots (Fig. 1E). Two other rounded black spots are present on either sides of abdominal tergite 3 (Fig. 1E). Most of the anatergite and katatergite are covered with a yellow stripe (Fig. 1C). The apical part of half mid-femur is dark (Fig. 1A). There is no darkening in fore and hind femur (Fig. 1A). The wings are characterized by the presence of an apical spot which extends more than halfway between veins R 4+5 and M (Fig. 1D) (Ekesi & Billah, 2007). The complete taxonomic description of this fly after White (2006) can be found in the online database ‘True Fruit Flies (Dipetra, Tephriditdae) of the Afrotropical Region’ (http://projects.bebif.be/fruitfly/ taxoninfo.html?id=282#). Brief notes on ecology and distribution Data about geographic distribution and especially on the ecology of D. frontalis are scarce. A distribution map of the pest can be found in the online database ‘True Fruit Flies (Dipetra, Tephriditdae) of the Afrotropical Region’ ª 2015 The Authors. Journal compilation ª 2015 OEPP/EPPO, EPPO Bulletin 45, 1–5 1 Bulletin OEPP/EPPO Bulletin (2015) 45 (2), 1–5 ISSN 0250-8052. DOI: 10.1111/epp.12204