A discriminant analysis was carried out for four species of the fraterculus group, Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedemann, 1830), A. obliqua (Macquart, 1835), A. sororcula (Zucchi, 1979) and A. zenildae (Zucchi, 1979). These species can be distinguished only by minor morphological characters of the aculeus apex and sometimes there is great difficulty in determining specific limits. The study was based on eight measurements of the aculeus and it was possible to separate the species using the discriminant analysis. Therefore, this analysis is an additional tool for the identification of Anastrepha species as it was already observed for many other groups of insects.
Insecta; morphometric analysis; taxonomy
