HWN Suggests

How adapting to different climates has helped a pest spread across the globe

If you have ever bitten into a fruit and been disgusted to find it wriggling with cream-coloured maggots, you have already met at least one member of the fruit fly family. True fruit flies belong to the fly family Tephritidae, and are quite different from the small Drosophila or “vinegar flies” that hover around and drown in your glass of wine. Unlike Drosophila, which lay their eggs in decaying organic matter such as fruit in a bowl in your kitchen, true fruit flies lay their eggs in ripening fruit that’s developing on the tree. Once the larvae hatch, they feed on the fruit they were laid in. The damage caused by this larval feeding means that true fruit flies are trouble for fruit growers.…

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Featured

 A Fruit Fly Has New Zealand on Biohazard Lockdown

Yes, a fruit fly. Not one of those flying freckles that hover above brown bananas—which is what I think of when you say fruit fly—but a Coca Cola bottle-bodied bastard from Australia that looks like a bee in a black bike helmet and could bring New Zealand fruit exports to a halt.

 Fruit Flies: Challenges and Opportunities to Stem the Tide of Global Invasions

Global trade in fresh fruit and vegetables, intensification of human mobility, and climate change facilitate fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) invasions. Life-history traits, environmental stress response, dispersal stress, and novel genetic admixtures contribute to their establishment and spread. Tephritids are among the most frequently intercepted taxa at ports of entry.

Articles of Interest

Fly Bacteria Invite Other Flies To Fruit Parties

An apple falls in an orchard and attracts fruit flies. Soon, the fruit is riddled with larvae, tunnelling inside it and digesting it from within. It’s a maggot party and, according to a new study, the invitation is written by microbes.

From trickle to flood: the large-scale, cryptic invasion of California by tropical fruit flies

Tropical fruit flies (Tephritidae), such as the Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) from Africa, the oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) from Asia and the Mexican fruit fly (Anastrepha ludens) from the Americas, are recognized by entomologists as among the most destructive agricultural insect pests in the world.

Fruit Flies Are Invading Los Angeles. The Solution? More Fruit Flies.

The Mediterranean fruit fly lays eggs that hatch into maggots inside fruit. Officials plan to halt population growth by dropping millions of sterile male flies over the affected region.

Fruit Flies Are Spreading Across U.S. Crops. The Government’s Outdated Approach Isn’t Helping

There’s no doubt that tropical fruit flies are a threat to the state’s crops. But Carey’s research shows that for decades the government has frequently taken extreme measures to get rid of them and then proclaimed their eradication—only to find the pests again in subsequent growing seasons.

Medfly and other fruit flies entrenched in California, study concludes

Research published today in the highly respected international journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B clearly demonstrates that at least five and as many as nine species of tropical fruit flies, including the infamous Medfly, are permanently established in California and inexorably spreading, despite more than 30 years of intervention and nearly 300 state-sponsored eradication programs aimed at the flies.

Medfly Eradication with Malathion

Medflies — Ceratitis capitata, the Mediterranean fruit fly — had been a problem in California on and off since Gov. Jerry Brown's first term in 1975. Brown's name had become synonymous with medflies by Nov. 24, 1980, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture deemed his cautious approach to what had started out as an isolated problem ineffective.

Millions of Sterile Fruit Flies Will Soon Be Dropped on Los Angeles

The influx of insects is meant to combat the invasive medfly, after officials identified two of the produce-destroying creatures in the area

One of the world’s worst pests attacks California

Fruit flies can attack hundreds of different crops, including citrus, avocadoes, grapes, figs, peppers, and tomatoes. They feed on fresh fruit and vegetables, rendering them unfit for human consumption. How might the infestation affect residents? Is there anything individuals can do to foil the flies?

The Battle Over the Medfly

Ceratitis capitata may be better known by its nonscientific name: the Mediterranean fruit fly, or Medfly to its friends. Only the Medfly has no friends, certainly not among fruit and vegetable growers, and certainly not among anyone interested in reasonably priced produce undamaged by these insects, whose eggs, hatched under the skin of, say, a tomato or a peach, develop into larvae that feast on the pulp. California, the nation’s fruit basket, with a $40-billion-a-year agricultural industry, feels especially vulnerable. How that state has handled Medfly scares going back more than three decades is the focus of the latest installment of Retro Report, a series of documentary videos that take a second look at major news stories from the past.

The Fly That Quarantined California and Pitted Environmentalists Against Farmers

In the summer of 1981, the Mediterranean fruit fly spread through California’s Santa Clara Valley, infesting backyard fruit trees and threatening the state’s $14 billion agricultural industry. But it would take more than conventional tools to defeat this bug. A massive ground eradication program failed to stop the Medfly, and a plan to spray pesticides from the air sparked angry protests and led Governor Jerry Brown into a dramatic showdown with the Reagan administration. Today, California continues to fight the Medfly. But the tactics have changed – and so have the politics.

The Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae), a Key Pest of Citrus in Egypt

The Mediterranean fruit fly (Mediterranean fruit fly), Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), is a key pest of citrus fruit (Sapindales: Rutaceae), and can infect over 300 other economically important fruit-bearing plant species globally. The Mediterranean fruit fly moves to different hosts continuously and has 8–10 overlapping generations a year in Egypt. The female lays the eggs under the fruit peel and hatched larvae use anterior mouth hooks to vigorously feed on fruit flesh until they reach the third and last instar. As tens of eggs are often deposited in a single spot, the fruit becomes juicy and inedible.

Vinegar flies / fruit flies

Mediterranean fruit fly prefer to lay there eggs in ripening fruit that is hanging on the tree. This “struck” fruit will have a small hole in the skin and will usually drop from the tree prematurely. The rotting fruit under the tree, full of Mediterranean fruit fly larva, was infected while it was still hanging on the tree and is now completing the life cycle on the ground. Vinegar flies are generally much smaller (not much more than 1 mm) and have a preference for rotten fruit. They are the small flies hanging around your fruit bowl, that you forgot to empty a week or so ago, or the compost bin.

Resources

Exotic fruit flies

Cause rots and discolouration. Eggs are laid close to the surface inside the fruit with small discoloured patches developing as a result of the stings.

Fruit Fly Control

We all have a role to play in the control of fruit fly, with community awareness and increased knowledge about integrated management measures imperative in protecting the region.

National Fruit Fly Council

The National Fruit Fly Council (NFFC) brings together governments, growers and research funders to oversee implementation of the National Fruit Fly Strategy and to drive delivery of a cost-effective and sustainable approach to managing fruit flies across Australia.