Rhagoletis indifferens

Rhagoletis indifferens
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Tephritidae
Genus: Rhagoletis
Species: R. indifferens
Binomial name
Rhagoletis indifferens
Curran, 1932
Synonyms
  • Rhagoletis cingulata subsp. indifferens Curran

The Western cherry fruit fly (Rhagoletis indifferens) is a pest that lives only on cherries. The adult form of this insect is slightly smaller than a housefly, with white stripes across the abdomen, yellow markings near the base of the wings, and black markings on the wings. The larva, which is the stage of this insect's life cycle that causes the actual damage to the fruit, is similar to a typical fly larva or maggot. Female flies lay eggs in the cherries where the larvae feed for 1–2 weeks before exiting. Western cherry fruit flies damage fruit by feeding, in both the adult and larva stages.

Distribution

South-eastern British Columbia in Canada. Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming in the United States. Has been introduced to Switzerland.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/8/2011. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.