Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Rhagoletis pomonella - Apple Maggot Fly

Apple Maggot - Rhagoletis pomonella Fruit Fly? - Rhagoletis pomonella - male Fruit Fly - Rhagoletis pomonella - female Fly on apple - Rhagoletis pomonella Rhagoletis pomonella? - Rhagoletis pomonella - male Rhagoletis pomonella? - Rhagoletis pomonella - male Rhubarb Fly  - Rhagoletis pomonella - female Rhagoletis cingulata ? - Rhagoletis pomonella - male
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon ("Acalyptratae")
Superfamily Tephritoidea
Family Tephritidae (Fruit Flies)
Subfamily Trypetinae
Tribe Carpomyini
Subtribe Carpomyina
Genus Rhagoletis
Species pomonella (Apple Maggot Fly)
Explanation of Names
Author: Walsh, Trypeta pomonella
Identification
Adult are black, slightly smaller than a house fly, with three or four white stripes across the body in the males and females, respectively, and has a prominent white spot in the middle of the back. The wings are clear, with four black bands shaped somewhat like the letter "F."
Larvae ("maggots") are white to pale-yellowish; legless; with a very small, black, pointed head-capsule; and reach about 1/4 inch at maturity.
 
Pupae resemble a grain of wheat.
Food
Hosts include apples, cherries, and hawthorns.
Life Cycle
Adults emerge during the summer (mid- June), with peak emergence in July and August. One generation a year. Some larvae don't mature until a year later.
Remarks
It is native to North America. It primarily fed on wild hawthorn (Crataegus spp.), but in the past 100 years it has become a pest of cultivated apples and cherries.
Flies are highly responsive to particular visual stimuli but only after being attracted by the apple odor. They show a preference for yellow or red apples.(1)
When the flies feed on aphid honeydew, they prefer larger yellow spheres over the red ones, especially when their need for carbohydrates is high.(1)
Works Cited
1.Insect-Plant Biology
L.M. Schoonhoven, T. Jermy, and J.J.A. Van Loon. 1998. Chapman and Hall.