Fruit Fly - Family Tephritidae

This page contains pictures and information about Fruit Flies that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia



Adults in this family are from small to medium size. Their wings are often patterned. They are orange, brown to black in colours but never metallic. Some of them look similar to Signal Flies or other Acalyptrata flies. They can be distinguished by Sc meeting costa at right angle and cell CuP angularly produced distally.


Female ovipositing

Females have ovipositor to insert eggs into soft fruits or flower buds.

Most larvae in this family are soft fruit feeders, others live in flower buds and some others are gall makers. A few of them are serious economic pests on cultivated fruits although most other species are restricted to native plants and not pests.

The female Fruit Flies insert their eggs inside fruit and the larvae live inside. When the larvae become mature, the fruit usually becomes rotten and falls onto the ground, the larvae come out and pupate in soil.

Subfamily Dacinae

Flies in this subfamily Dacinae are usually reddish-brown in colour with yellow lines on sides of thorax.

Queensland Fruit Fly

Bactrocera tryoni, body length 6mm
We found quite a number of this flies on the peach tree in Botanic Garden in Mt Coot-Tha. The fly is mostly orange-brown in colour with yellow strips on thorax. Its abdomen is stout with a pale brown band. Its wings are with dark front edges and dark base. There are more pictures and information in this page.


Wild Tobacco Fruit Fly

Bactrocera cacuminata, body length 6mm
This Wild Tobacco Fruit Fly is easily found on the Wild Tobacco plants. The fly lays eggs into wild tobacco fruits. Please also check this page for more information.

Flies in this subfamily Trypetinae are usually pale to dark brown in body colours. Their wings are with dark patterns.

Ant-mimicking Fly

? Micronevrina sp., body length 5mm
We found this fly mimics ants when moves. By just looking at those fly photos, you may not recognized how this fly mimics ants. We have details explanations here.


Unknown Fruit Fly 1

Euphranta sp., body length 5mm
1. On the Fly, The Interactive Atlas and Key to Australian Fly Families CD Rom - Hamilton, J. et al. 2006. Brisbane : CBIT & ABRS.


Unknown Fruit Fly 2

Photo: Keith Power, Toowoomba
Acanthonevra sp.,
Reference:
1. Acanthonevra sp. - Insects of Townsville, Australia - Graeme Cocks, 2004.


Unknown Fruit Fly 3

? sp., body length 5mm
Pictures were taken in Wishart Bushland near the Bulimba Creek on Apr 2011

Reference:
1. On the Fly, The Interactive Atlas and Key to Australian Fly Families CD Rom - Hamilton, J. et al. 2006. Brisbane : CBIT & ABRS.
2. Family TEPHRITIDAE - Australian Biological Resources Study, Australian Faunal Directory.
3. Northern Territory Insects, A Comprehensive Guide CD - Graham Brown, 2009.
4. Australian Dacinae (Diptera : Tephritidae): New Species from Cape York Peninsula, a Discussion of Species complexes and Key to Species - R. A. I. Drew, D. L. Hancock, and M. C. Romig, Aust. J. Zool,, 1981; 29, 49-91.