Mediterranean Fruit Fly (redirected from Mediterranean fruit flies)

Mediterranean fruit fly: see fruit fly.

---

Mediterranean fruit fly

 or Med fly

Fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) proven to be particularly destructive to citrus crops, at great economic cost. The Med fly lays up to 500 eggs in citrus fruits (except lemons and sour limes), and the larvae tunnel into the fruit, making it unfit for human consumption. Because of this pest, quarantine laws regulating fruit importation have been enacted worldwide.

---

Mediterranean Fruit Fly 

(Ceratias capitata), an insect of the family Trypetidae, a dangerous crop pest. The body is 4.5 mm long. The mottled wings are marked with dark noncontinuous bands. The Mediterranean fruit fly is common in many countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australia, and Oceania. It does not occur in the USSR, but it is an object of quarantine, since its larvae are easily transported with various fruits. The fly is polyphagous, damaging more than 70 plant species (for example, apricot, peach, orange, mandarin, apple, pear, grape, and tomato). The female deposits eggs on the skin of ripe fruit; the larvae hatch one or two days later and feed on the fruit for two to three weeks, causing it to rot. The number of generations varies with climatic conditions. Quarantine measures in the USSR and other countries that import citrus fruits largely consist of limiting imports to the winter and disinfecting fruits by heat or chemical agents.