Terellia serratulae is a species of tephritid or fruit flies in the family Tephritidae.[5]
Description
Terellia serratulae can reach a length of about 4–6 millimetres (0.16–0.24 in). This bluish clear-winged fruit fly has a hairy abdomen with a chequered black pattern. The apex of the antennae is reddish or yellow-orange. In the females the length of the ovipositor corresponds approximately to the length of the last three abdominal segments (tergites).[6][7]
The females deposit eggs into the opened thistle flowerheads. The young larvae start feeding on the achenes of thistles (mainly Cirsium and Carduus species), but they do not induce gall-forming. They develop in the flower-heads (capitulum) of thistles in a cocoon of silk and plant hairs (pappus). This univoltine species overwinters in the larval stage. Adults are on the wing from July to September.[8]
^Loew, H. (1844). "Kritische Untersuchung der europäische n Arten des Genus Trypeta Meig". Z. Ent. (Germar). 5: 312–437.
^ abRobineau-Desvoidy, André Jean Baptiste (1830). "Essai sur les myodaires". Mémoires presentés à l'Institut des Sciences, Lettres et Arts, par divers savants et lus dans ses assemblées: Sciences, Mathématiques et Physique. 2 (2): 1–813. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
^Manuel, B.E. (1811). Mouche. [Concl.] Pp. 1-45. In Olivier, G. A., Histoire Naturelle des Insectes, Volume 8, Mou-Pao. 722 pp. In Societe de Gens de Lettres, de Savants et d'Artistes, Encyclopedie Methodique. Paris: Agasse.
^Norrbom, A.L.; Carroll, L.E.; Thompson, F.C.; White, I.M; Freidberg, A. (1999). "Systematic Database of Names. Pp. 65-252. In Thompson, F. C. (ed.), Fruit Fly Expert Identification System and Systematic Information Database". Myia. 9: vii + 524.
