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Smoky Mountains
University of Tennessee Biological Field Station
August 8-10, 2008

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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » Acalyptratae » Tephritoidea » Fruit Flies (Tephritidae)

Family Tephritidae - Fruit Flies

Classification · Other Common Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Life Cycle · Remarks · Print References · Internet References · Works Cited

Fruit Fly, 3 of 3 - Trupanea nigricornis

Fruit fly - Trupanea? - Trupanea nigricornis

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Diptera (Flies)

No Taxon (Acalyptratae)

Superfamily Tephritoidea

Family Tephritidae (Fruit Flies)

Other Common Names

Picture-winged Flies (not recommended, as the name is more commonly applied to Ulidiidae, formerly Otitidae)

Numbers

301 species in 55 genera in North America listed at nearctica.com

Arnett lists 300 species for North America. (1)

Size

body length 2-12 mm

Identification

Many species have highly-patterned wings. These are used by males for courtship and may also be defensive. SEL-USDA--mentions mimicry of jumping spiders by fruit flies. The wing-waving apparently deters the approach of jumping spiders, important predators of the flies.

Other species have brightly-patterned bodies, and may mimic wasps.

Life Cycle

Larvae live in a variety of fruit, seeds (often Asteraceae), are leaf miners, or cause galls.

Remarks

"Spider predation has been intense enough to mold the evolution of prey characteristics: predation by salticids (jumping spiders) has shaped the morphology and behavior of some tephritid flies. Their wing markings resemble the pattern of the legs of jumping spiders; the flies also wave their wings in a fashion that appears to mimic the agonistic behavior of salticids - making them 'proverbial sheep in wolf's clothing' (Greene, Orsak & Whitman 1987, Mather & Roitberg 1987)."

David H. Wise, Spiders In Ecological Webs

Print References

Arnett, p.p. 891-893 (1)

Swan and Papp, pp. 625-628 (2)

Borror and White, p. 288, plate 14 (3)

Internet References

Tephritidae--USDA

Insects of Cedar Creek

detailed descriptions of adults of many species (L.E. Carroll et al, Pest Fruit Flies of the World - Adults, delta-intkey.com)

detailed descriptions of larvae of many species (L.E. Carroll et al, Pest Fruit Flies of the World - Larvae, delta-intkey.com)

Works Cited

1.	American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico By Ross H. Arnett

2.	The Common Insects of North America By Lester A. Swan, Charles S. Papp

3.	A Field Guide to Insects By Richard E. White, Donald J. Borror, Roger Tory Peterson

Contributed by john and jane balaban on 12 September, 2004 - 5:08pm
Additional contributions by cotinis, Beatriz Moisset, Robin McLeod, Jeff Hollenbeck
Last updated 24 December, 2007 - 10:38am

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