What Does the Eastern Cherry Fruit Fly Look Like?

The eastern cherry fruit fly looks like a fly with clear wings that have wide, wavy dark bands, brownish yellow head and legs, with three or four white crossbands on their abdomen.

Here are some additional details about what this fruit fly looks like:

It is a little bit smaller than the average house fly.
It is one of the three species of the cherry fruit fly and all three are blackish in color with their head and legs being yellowish brown.
Their wings are clear with blackish irregularly shaped bands.
The female eastern cherry fruit fly has four white crossbands on her abdomen and the male had three.

What makes the eastern cherry fruit fly look different than the other species is not only the abdomen but also the wings. The black markings on the black cherry fruit fly are wider than the wings of the eastern cherry fruit fly and have a small doughnut type of marking at the bottom.

Cherry Fruit Flies

Here are a few additional facts about the family of cherry fruit flies:

Scientific Names

Rhagoletis cingulata is the eastern cherry fruit fly.
Rhagoletis indifferens is the western cherry fruit fly.
Rhagoletis fausta is the black cherry fruit fly.

Locale

The eastern cherry fruit fly is found in the eastern parts of the United States and southern Canada.
The western cherry fruit fly inhabits the western United States including Idaho, Washington, and California.
The black cherry fruit fly lives from southern Canada to New York and also in California.
The eastern cherry fruit fly is the only one in Florida.

Eastern Cherry Fruit Fly Problems

This type of fruit fly is known for the problems they bring to cherry crops:

Cherry fruit flies lay eggs in cherries that become maggots when they hatch.
Their hosts are mostly cultivated cherries, wild cherries, pear, and plum.
The black cherry fruit fly prefers sour cherries.
The four main kinds of cultivated cherries that host the cherry fruit flies are sweet cherry, sour cherry, St. Lucie cherry, and the wild cherry.
Cherry fruit flies are the biggest problem for cultivated cherries. They damage the fruit by eating the fruit as adults and eating the fruit on the inside as larvae, with most damage being done by the larvae.

Both chemical and natural controls of these pests have been tried and the chemical solution is the best at the present time as there is zero tolerance in the market for cherry fruit fly damage.

Life Cycle of Cherry Fruit Flies

Eggs are laid by the females by piercing the skin of the fruit and depositing the egg just under the skin. This will leave a small scar on the outside of the fruit.

Depending on the temperature, the egg will hatch in five or so days.
The larvae or maggots are five to six mm long, or 0.2 inches, are a creamy color, and have no legs or head.
They stay near the pit to feed and will mature in two to three weeks.
At that time, if the fruit is ripe, they will make their way through the fruit and its skin and drop to the ground.
When the larva is on the ground, it bores into the dirt and forms a puparium that resembles the color of straw.
It may emerge anytime within two years of that time.
In May or June, the flies begin to emerge as the cherries are beginning to become red and continue emerging until July.
New flies will feed on honeydew from aphids and other bugs and will be sexually mature in around a week.
Mating will then take place on the fruit and the females will lay eggs.

So, now you know what the eastern cherry fruit fly looks like, as well as plenty of other fun fruit fly facts.