RES Handbook Vol 10 Part 5a. Diptera - Tephritidae

Most species of Tephritidae (=Trypetidae, Trupaneidae, Euribiidae) are phytophagous and have prominently patterned wings. There is no British common name, although the Tephritoidea, which also includes such families as Platystomatidae and Otitidae, are known as picture winged flies . Elsewhere, tephritids are often called fruit flies, because most species inhabit the fruit or other seed bearing organs of flowering plants; however, British entomologists generally use this term for the Drosophilidae . A few tephritids are leaf-miners, e.g . the celery fly, Euleia heracleii in various umbellifers (Apiaceae or Umbelliferae); some species are stem-borers , e.g. Cerajocera plagiata in Centaurea scabiosa; others live in roots, e.g . Dithryca guttularis in Achillea millefolium, and Euphranta toxoneura is a predator and brood parasite in sawfly galls. Most British tephritids are associated with composite plants (Asteraceae or Compositae), and many of these form galls in the capitulum (=flower head or seed head), stem or root system. The only tephritids known to be non-phytophagous are a few Australian and Papuan species associated with the green bark of freshly dead trees, decaying fruit and termite nests (Kapoor et al., 1980). There are about 4000 described species of Tephritidae in about 300 genera, of which almost 800 species and about 140 genera are Palaearctic.