Currant Fruit Fly – Euphantra Canadensis

Currant Fruit Fly: Appearance, Territory, Damage and Life Cycle Latin Name: Euphranta Canadensis Appearance: The adult is a little yellowish fly with vivid green eyes and smoky streaks across the wings, measuring around 8 mm in length. White maggots with a tapering head and a cylindrical shape. These green larvae with black spots are caterpillars that nibble on the foliage of currants and gooseberries, with the latter being their favorite, and adult currant worms are sawflies that look like houseflies. There is also a gooseberry fruitworm, (Zophodia convolutella), which is a green caterpillar with dark green stripes down its sides. Host Plant: Currant fruit flies are little insects that lay eggs and hatch into larvae, feeding on the fruits of gooseberry and currant bushes. Currant and gooseberry plants are attacked by this bug. The maggots consume the growing fruits, turning them crimson and causing them to fall off the tree prematurely. Territory: Malaysian fruit fly is widespread through much of the mainland of Southern Asia and neighboring islands, including Sri Lanka and Taiwan. It has spread to Kenya, Tanzania, and the Hawaiian Islands. Damage Caused: The maggots develop within the fruit and feed on it, rendering it inedible. Infested fruit falls from the bush early, yet others remain. A discolored spot where the egg was implanted can be seen on infested berries. Before they fall, infested fruits frequently become crimson. The maggots eat inside the developing fruits, causing them to turn red and prematurely fall from the tree. Life Cycle and habits: This insect produces one generation each year and overwinters in the soil as a pupa. It merges from the soil in April or May and lays its eggs in the fruit. When the fruit drops, the maggots enter the soil. The females lay eggs in the spring under the skin of the young, green, developing currant or gooseberry fruits. Each female can lay up to 200 eggs, usually one egg per berry. One maggot can usually eat the entire interior of the fruit – they’re greedy little pests. As the fruits mature, the infested ones may turn red and they may fall from the plant onto the ground. Eagle-eyed gardeners may spot a flat, discolored area where the adult inserted the egg into the fruit. Around the time when infested berries start falling to the ground, the maggots drop to the soil (if they aren’t there already) where they hang out during the winter as brown pupae about the size of a grain of wheat. They burrow one to three inches deep near the base of the bushes to overwinter. They especially love spots that are covered in leaves and other debris, and they can remain in the soil for up to 10 months. In the spring, they emerge from the soil as adult flies over a period of several weeks.