fruit fly

(Campiglossa albiceps)

Conservation Status
IUCN Red List

not listed

NatureServe

not listed

Minnesota

not listed

 
fruit fly (Campiglossa albiceps)
Photo by Babette Kis
 
Description

Campiglossa albiceps is a small fruit fly. It occurs in the United States from Maine to Pennsylvania, west to Minnesota and Ohio, and south along the Appalachian Mountains to North Carolina. It also occurs across southern Canada from Nova Scotia to British Columbia.

Adults have been collected from June through early September. They are found in open natural areas, including in meadows and at forest edges, and in open disturbed areas, including on old fields and on roadsides. The larvae feed on the flowers of various species of asters.

Adults are small, about ¼ (6 mm) from the antennae to the wing tips. The body is yellowish gray, and it is covered with whitish-gray hair.

The head is white. The front of the head above the antennae is yellowish. The antennae are pale yellowish. The extended mouthpart (proboscis) is short, elbowed, and yellowish.

The thorax has several long, black bristles, each rising from a small black spot. The plate between the abdomen and thorax (scutellum) is pale yellow, sometimes darker at the base and on the sides. It is not swollen and shiny. It has four black bristles.

The abdomen is usually entirely black, but sometimes the rear margin of segments 2 and 3 are yellowish red. In either case, the ground color is completely obscured by a dense covering of whitish-gray hair. Each abdominal segment has a pair of black spots. On the female, the ovipositor is black, shiny, tapered, and long, at least as long as the last two abdominal segments taken together.

The legs are yellow.

The wings are elliptical and brownish black with white roundish spots (drops). Near the base of each wing, the drops are dense and merge together, making the base mostly white. The stigma is large and black with one small drop. Beyond the stigma, there is a pyramid of six large drops interspersed with small drops. In the middle of the wing there are several large drops interspersed with numerous small drops. There is a row of three equally sized, very round drops at the wing tip on or very near the margin. The end of the subcosta (Sc) vein is abruptly bent outward at a right angle, and it does not quite reach the margin. The anal cell is closed by a concave vein, and it has a long projection at the end.

 

Size

Total length: about ¼ (6 mm)

 

Similar Species

 
Habitat

Meadows, forest edges, old fields, and roadsides

Biology

Season

June through early September

 

Behavior

 

 

Life Cycle

The eggs are laid in flower heads.

 

Larva Food

Flowers of various species of asters

 

Adult Food

 

Distribution

Distribution Map

 

Sources

29, 30, 82, 83.

8/19/2024    
     

Occurrence

 

Taxonomy

Order

Diptera (flies)

Suborder

Brachycera

Infraorder

Cyclorrhapha

Zoosection

Schizophora

Zoosubsection

Acalyptratae

Superfamily

Tephritoidea (fruit, signal, and picture-winged flies)

Family

Tephritidae (fruit flies)

Subfamily

Tephritinae

Tribe

Tephritini

Genus

Campiglossa

   

Subordinate Taxa

 

   

Synonyms

Paroxyna albiceps

Trypeta albiceps

Trypeta duplex

Trypeta euryptera

   

Common Names

This species has no common name. The common name of the Family Tephritidae is fruit flies, and it is applied here for convenience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Scutellum

The exoskeletal plate covering the rearward (posterior) part of the middle segment of the thorax in some insects. In Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Homoptera, the dorsal, often triangular plate behind the pronotum and between the bases of the front wings. In Diptera, the exoskeletal plate between the abdomen and the thorax.

 

Stigma

In plants, the portion of the female part of the flower that is receptive to pollen. In Lepidoptera, an area of specialized scent scales on the forewing of some skippers, hairstreaks, and moths. In other insects, a thickened, dark, or opaque cell on the leading edge of the wing.

 

 

 

 

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Babette Kis

fruit fly (Campiglossa albiceps)  

 

Campiglossa albiceps

Campiglossa albiceps, a species of fruit fly, photographed on Barnes Prairie, Racine Co., WI on July 6, 2021. I've found these tiny, often fast-moving, flies on leaves of prairie plants.

 

 

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Babette Kis
7/6/2021

Location: Barnes Prairie, Racine Co., WI

Campiglossa albiceps, a species of fruit fly, photographed on Barnes Prairie, Racine Co., WI on July 6, 2021. I've found these tiny, often fast-moving, flies on leaves of prairie plants.

fruit fly (Campiglossa albiceps)
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Created: 8/19/2024

Last Updated:

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