2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The Mediterranean fruit fly is a very dangerous pest that damages plums with peaches, oranges with apricots and some other vegetables and fruit crops. Hungry larvae feeding on the pulp of the fruit provoke their gradual abscission. And damage to the delicate skin of developing fruits during oviposition leads to the development of mold on them and subsequent decay. Especially often with these bright harmful flies can be found in subtropical and tropical regions
Meet the pest
The adult size of the Mediterranean fruit fly is approximately 4.5 - 5 mm. The eyes of these pests are usually wine-red in color, with a clearly visible greenish sheen. On their black shiny breasts, you can see a lot of yellowish-white specks and lines, and in the shoulder area of each individual there are fancy little white rings. The yellowish abdomens of harmful flies are equipped with gray transverse stripes, and their very peculiar wings are decorated with intermittent dark transverse stripes and numerous specks of brownish, yellow and black. And the bases of the wings and their front edges are slightly darkened.
The heads of the females are characterized by whitish-grayish shades and are endowed with proboscis with dark stripes. The antennae of voracious pests consist of a brownish bristle and three tiny segments, while the first two segments are also brownish in color, and the last and third are grayish-brown. And on the ocher-yellow legs of the females from the side of the back, you can see three transverse lead-gray stripes. The abdomens of these dangerous scoundrels are slightly curved and flattened. As for the males, their bristles end in amusing rhomboid brownish lobes are painted in yellowish tones.
The size of the slightly elongated eggs of these outlandish pests ranges from 0.5 to 0.9 mm. All eggs are creamy-whitish in color and have slightly pointed tips. And when examined under a microscope, a characteristic reticular pattern can be seen on the laid eggs. The larvae, which grow in length from 7 to 10 mm, are devoid of legs and consist of twelve segments. On the thin front ends of their bodies there is a mouth apparatus consisting of little black chitinous hooks. Here are also located tiny anterior spiracles, consisting of nine or eleven finger-shaped outgrowths. And the posterior ends of the bodies of harmful larvae are always blunt - on them are the posterior spiracles equipped with three respiratory slits.
Pupae of colorful flies grow up to 4 - 5 mm in length and differ in a slightly elongated oval shape. The color of their covers can vary from yellow to dark brown. By the way, in pupae, the posterior spiracles are clearly visible and segmentation is very pronounced.
The flies that subsequently emerged from the puparium mate almost immediately and soon begin to lay eggs in ripening fruits. The peel of the female fruit is pierced with the ovipositor, after which they lay from one to twenty eggs in the formed depressions. Fertility of each female can easily reach three hundred eggs. And the embryonic development of pests requires only one or two days. After this time, miniature larvae hatch from the eggs, the size of which is initially about 1 mm. All larvae gradually move inside the fruit (as the pulp decays). Each individual feeds for two to three weeks, as a result of which the fruits attacked by them almost always fall prematurely. And from the destroyed fallen fruits, the voracious larvae immediately move into the soil, where they later pupate.
How to fight
Fortunately, this overseas guest is a quarantine pest on the territory of the Russian Federation, so summer residents do not have to deal with it - all fruits imported into Russia undergo a thorough inspection and mandatory examination. Moreover, it is strictly forbidden to import citrus fruits to the regions of possible acclimatization of these harmful parasites in the period from April 1 to October 1, and at other times of the year the fruits are imported only after proper disinfection.
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