Quarantines, Proclamation of Emergencies, PEAs

The Mediterranean fruit fly is a short, squat fly about 1/4 inch in length. It has a blackish thorax marked with silver; a tan abdomen with darker stripes extending across the abdomen; and clear wings with two light brown bands across the wing, another along the distal front edge, and gray flecks scattered near the base.

The immature stages are superficially similar to those of other exotic fruit flies. Eggs are white, very small, elongate, and somewhat banana-shaped.

Larvae are white, legless, and somewhat carrot-shaped. The pupa is contained inside an elongate oval, shiny brown, hard puparium.

The adult oriental fruit fly is somewhat larger than a housefly, about 8 mm in length. The body color is variable but generally bright yellow with a dark “T” shaped marking on the abdomen. The wings are clear.

The female has a pointed slender ovipositor to deposit eggs under the skin of host fruit. Eggs are minute cylinders laid in batches.

The maggots (larvae) are creamy-white, legless, and may attain a length of 10 mm inside host fruit.