January 2015.A request from Vietnam for the identification of an insect imported with a groundnut consignment from India.

It was identified as Caryedon gonagra on the basis of the male genitalia by a member from the University Nangui Abrogoua, Cote d’Ivoire. A paper on the taxonomy is provided here: http://zoologie.umh.ac.be/asef/pdf/2003_39_03%5Cfull%5CDelobel_et_al_ASEF_2003_39%20(03)_197_206_full.pdf

There was a discussion whether it was serratus or gonagra.

A member of the Australian Museum (A PestNety Associate) wrote: it’s the groundnut bruchine, genus Caryedon definitely, possibly serratus. The two species serratus and gonagra (normally a pest of tamarinds not ground nuts) are only separated by the endophallus in male genitalia which is why the sender has dissected it (v nicely). Both species occur in Africa and Asia.

Later, it’s a beautiful dissection and shows clearly that this is Caryedon gonagra not serratus – the key differences in the endophallic sclerites are illustrated in Delobel 2003: 201 (Ann Soc Ent Fr 39(3): 197-206) – the photo matches gonagra perfectly

Because of previous confusion between the two species, Delobel’s paper is the most important and it reviews all records (older records should be ignored). This species is most commonly reared from tamarind, but is also recorded from pods of Bauhinia, Senna, Cassia, Gleditsia, Acacia, Dichrostachys, Arachis (Delobel notes that this is a lab record only). Delobel records gonagra from the field in Egypt, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and New Caledonia. There’s a recent record from Reunion and it was collected in Timor by an Australian Museum survey. I imagine its everywhere between Egypt and New Caledonia. It turns up elsewhere as an occasional accidental import.