Spyke

Syndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.

View original on sh.itjust.works
askbiologists·Ask Biologists 🙋👨‍🔬 🧬bysun_is_ra

Help ID this fruit fly. Looks like pumpkin fruitfly but the pattern on the rear is different

I have many pictures of two specimen (presumably a male and female)

The one with bent wing has this appendix which I think uses to penetrate my luffa fruit skin and lay its eggs or maybe that's the male's organ

Location: Indonesia

View original on sh.itjust.works
23
Comments8

8 replies

LibertyLizardreply
slrpnk.net

I think the little vestigial wings mean it's a fly, right? Wasps should have another functional pair of wings instead. Sometimes it's hard to tell but I only see 2 here.

3
MMLreply
sh.itjust.works

Yes, they are called halteres, just learned this today. Closest I could find was Dacus longicornis

3
sun_is_rareply
sh.itjust.works

To me they look very different:

  1. The wasp in your picture has a very thin and long waist. in my picture its shorter and thicker.
  2. wasp's waist is thinner toward the thorax and wider toward abdomen, mine is opposite
  3. pattern on the abdomen doesn't match.
  4. this insect lay eggs in my luffa plant that grow into maggots, wasps don't have maggots in their life cycle.

There is already a fruitfly species that is very similar to my photos called pumpkin fruitfly but it's not an exact match

3
thenextguyreply
sh.itjust.works

Flies have very distinct eyes. I don't see those here. Mine was more of an example than an exact match.

1

You reached the end

Help ID this fruit fly. Looks like pumpkin fruitfly but the pattern on the rear is different | Spyke