First Records of Zaprionus Indianus (Diptera: Drosophilidae), a Pest Species on Commercial Fruits From Panama and the United States of America

Zaprionus indianus Gupta 1970 (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is native to Africa, the Middle East, and southern Eurasia (Chassagnard & Kraaijeveld 1991; Baichli 1999-2005). It was first found in the Americas in 1999, when it was reported from Sao Paulo, Brazil (Vilela 1999). Since then, it has spread rapidly through Brazil (Santos et al. 2003; Tidon et al. 2003; Ledo & Tidon 2004; da Silva et al. 2005) and Uruguay (Goni et al. 2001, 2002) and has been predicted to reach the USA in the near future (David et al. 2006). Here we report the first records of Z. indianus from Panama and the USA. On 6 and 7 Oct 2003, DH collected several individuals of Z. indianus on Isla Contadora, Panama. KH reared several individuals of Zaprionus (Steck 2005) from fruits of longan, Dimocarpus longan Lour., and Barbados cherry, Malpighia emarginata Sess6 & Moc. ex DC., collected on 26 Jul 2005 in St. Lucie Co., Florida. Dr. C. Ribeiro Vilela confirmed the identification as Z. indianus.