Black Cherry Fruit Fly,
Cherry Fruit Fly
Beginner
This pest affects:
 |
 |
Scientific Name
Cherry Fruit Fly (CFF) Rhagoletis cingulata
Black Cherry Fruit Fly (BCFF) Rhagoletis fausta
Identification
Larvae
- White, legless maggot-like with no distinct head
- 5-6 mm long when mature
- Posterior end is blunt; anterior end tapers to a point with 2 dark mouth hooks
Pupa
- 4-5 mm long, gold to brown colour, elongate-oval shape
- Resembles grain of wheat
Adult
- 4–5 mm long, slightly smaller than house fly
- Black body with yellow markings near base of wings and white stripes across abdomen
- Wings clear with dark bands and a characteristic dark spot at the tip
- BCFF abdomen is entirely black, slightly larger than CFF; bands on wings are darker and wider than CFF with a donut-hole marking near the posterior edge
- CFF males and females have 3 or 4 white bands on the abdomen
- Wings have black markings, CFF and BCFF can be differentiated based on wing pattern
Damage
- A small dimple will form around the egg puncture in green fruit before it has fully sized
- In fruit; most larval feeding occurs next to pit; the pit will separate from the pulp and the pulp will turn brown
- Larval tunnels extend throughout the infested fruit
- Infested fruit may initially appear sound and will not drop prematurely
- Infested cherries become shrunken, misshapen and undersized
- Fruit turns reddish and ripens earlier than uninfested fruit
- Brown rot can start in fruit injured by fruit flies
Often Confused With
Plum curculio larvae – C-shaped and legless; Cream-coloured, with a distinct brown head capsule
Spotted winged drosophila maggots - Tiny (up to 6 mm), white, cylindrical and generally featureless maggots that can be found feeding in fruit. Difficult to distinguish from CFF: must be reared to adult for identification
Spotted winged drosophlia adult - Small (2-3 mm), red-eyed fly with a pale yellow or brown abdomen marked by dark brown unbroken bands or stripes
CFF and BCFF can be differentiated based on wing pattern
Period of Activity
First emergence occurs in late May or early June when early tart cherries begin to show a tinge of color. BCFF emerges about a week before CFF. Flies continue to emerge for about one month, into early July. Peak emergence occurs in mid (BCFF) to late (CFF) June.
Scouting Notes
Adult activity can be monitored using yellow sticky boards with ammonium bait, one trap per 4 ha. The yellow trap is most useful during the pre-oviposition period when newly emerged females are actively feeding. Traps should be placed on the south-facing side of the top of the canopy of trees in perimeter rows because most flies are expected to be immigrating from wild hosts outside the orchard. Optimally, traps should be checked twice weekly until the first fly is captured, then once a week thereafter until the end of the flight.
Small larvae in the fruit may be detected more easily by boiling a suspect sample in water for one minute. The larvae then tend to sink to the bottom of the container.
Threshold
Zero tolerance for fruit flies in fruit.
Use an action threshold of three flies per trap per week.
Advanced
This pest affects:
|
|
Scientific Name
Cherry Fruit Fly (CFF) Rhagoletis cingulata
Black Cherry Fruit Fly (BCFF) Rhagoletis fausta
Identification
Larvae
- White, legless maggot-like with no distinct head
- 5-6 mm long when mature
- Posterior end is blunt; anterior end tapers to a point with 2 dark mouth hooks
Pupa
- 4-5 mm long, gold to brown colour, elongate-oval shape
- Resembles grain of wheat
Adult
- 4–5 mm long, slightly smaller than house fly
- Black body with yellow markings near base of wings and white stripes across abdomen
- Wings clear with dark bands and a characteristic dark spot at the tip
- BCFF abdomen is entirely black, slightly larger than CFF; bands on wings are darker and wider than CFF with a donut-hole marking near the posterior edge
- CFF males and females have 3 or 4 white bands on the abdomen
- Wings have black markings, CFF and BCFF can be differentiated based on wing pattern
Damage
- A small dimple will form around the egg puncture in green fruit before it has fully sized
- In fruit; most larval feeding occurs next to pit; the pit will separate from the pulp and the pulp will turn brown
- Larval tunnels extend throughout the infested fruit
- Infested fruit may initially appear sound and will not drop prematurely
- Infested cherries become shrunken, misshapen and undersized
- Fruit turns reddish and ripens earlier than uninfested fruit
- Brown rot can start in fruit injured by fruit flies
Often Confused With
Plum curculio larvae – C-shaped and legless; Cream-coloured, with a distinct brown head capsule
Spotted winged drosophila maggots - Tiny (up to 6 mm), white, cylindrical and generally featureless maggots that can be found feeding in fruit. Difficult to distinguish from CFF: must be reared to adult for identification
Spotted winged drosophlia adult - Small (2-3 mm), red-eyed fly with a pale yellow or brown abdomen marked by dark brown unbroken bands or stripes
CFF and BCFF can be differentiated based on wing pattern
Biology
CFF attacks both sweet and sour cherries while BCFF primarily attacks the sour cherries.
Pin cherry is the wild host of BCFF. The wild host of CFF is wild black cherry.
CFF and BCFF overwinter as pupae in the top 2-5 cm of soil under cherry trees. Adults emerge starting in late May. BCFF emerges about a week ahead of CFF. Freshly emerged flies move actively about the foliage and feed on honeydew produced by aphids or other insects. After about one week, flies are sexually mature. Mating takes place on the fruit and egg-laying begins, and can continue for about 25 days. The female fly pierces the fruit with her sharp ovipositor and inserts a single egg just below the skin, leaving a small scar on the surface. Hatch occurs after five or more days, depending on the temperature.
Over 350 eggs may be laid by one female. The eggs hatch into small, legless, headless larvae in about a week. Newly hatched larvae burrow directly into the fruit where they feed next to the pit. Inside the fruit the larvae continue to grow, passing through three instars each of 11 days duration. Mature larvae are about 7 mm long. The final instar larvae develop a breathing hole in the surface of the fruit and after about three days near the surface emerge, drop to the soil and form a puparium at a depth of approximately 7.6 cm.
Period of Activity
First emergence occurs in late May or early June when early tart cherries begin to show a tinge of color. BCFF emerges about a week before CFF. Flies continue to emerge for about one month, into early July. Peak emergence occurs in mid (BCFF) to late (CFF) June.
Scouting Notes
Adult activity can be monitored using yellow sticky boards with ammonium bait, one trap per 4 ha. The yellow trap is most useful during the pre-oviposition period when newly emerged females are actively feeding. Traps should be placed on the south-facing side of the top of the canopy of trees in perimeter rows because most flies are expected to be immigrating from wild hosts outside the orchard. Optimally, traps should be checked twice weekly until the first fly is captured, then once a week thereafter until the end of the flight.
Small larvae in the fruit may be detected more easily by boiling a suspect sample in water for one minute. The larvae then tend to sink to the bottom of the container.
Threshold
Zero tolerance for fruit flies in fruit.
Use an action threshold of three flies per trap per week.
Management Notes
Destroy infested cherries before the larvae emerge.
Remove all cherries before they all turn red to reduce fruit fly numbers for next season.
At cherry bloom, search out and destroy any unmanaged hosts (abandoned cherries or wild cherries) within a distance of at least 250 m.
Research shows female fruit flies will lay eggs in green fruit. This means application of insecticides to the new later maturing varieties when the fruit may still be green.
When flies first appear on traps, their ovaries are still undeveloped, and insecticides should be delayed for about a week to target ovipositing females, when early varieties are beginning to show red colour. Repeat in about 10 days, when Montmorency begins to colour. Late varieties may require a third spray.
Management with insecticides: Insecticides are used to control cherry fruit fly in commercial orchards. See OMAFRA Publication 360, Fruit Crop Protection Guide.
|
Chapter 5 - Sweet Cherry Calendar: Recommendations for cherry fruit fly at Second cover, Third cover. |
|
Chapter 5 - Sour Cherry Calendar: Recommendations for cherry fruit fly at Second cover, Third cover. |
Some information included above excerpted from:
