The most common variety of fruit flies lays eggs in fermenting fruit. And we’re talking about many, many eggs, like hundreds per individual. That’s why an infestation in your kitchen can get out of control fast.
But the two new flies found in California – Drosophila gentica and D. flavohirta – don’t care for fruit. They lay their eggs in flowers. Both flies don’t seem to be doing harm in California, at least not to crops.
Photo Credit: Kelsey Bailey, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
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But some invasive fruit flies have been major problems for farmers. In California, a fly imported from Japan in 2008 is now a pest of cherries, strawberries, blueberries and other berries. Another fruit fly from Africa found its way to Brazil, where it has become a pest of oranges, peaches and figs.
There are more than 1,500 fruit fly species around the world. And don’t let their tiny bodies fool you. The males pack a punch: They have the longest sperm of any organism on Earth. One species (D. bifurca) has 2.3-inch long sperm cells.
“The sperm of a man 6 feet tall, if proportionate to that of the champion fruit fly, would be about 120 feet long,” The New York Times reported back in 1995 when this supersperm was first detected.
