The Lifecycle of the Queensland Fruit Fly

As with most insects, there are four stages in the life cycle: eggs, maggots, pupa and the adult fly.

1. Egg - white in colour and banana shaped. Eggs will seldom or never be seen by house holders.

2. Maggots - soon after the eggs have been laid within the fruit, they hatch and a small maggot emerges from each. As the maggot feeds it increases in size. It has cutting jaws which helps it to tear off pieces of the fruit small enough for it to swallow. As the maggots tends to eat their way towards the centre of the fruit decay begins inside. However, from the outside the fruit may look fine. As the maggot completes its growth it chews its way out of the fruit (which by then has usually fallen) and burrows 2.5cm or so into the soil.

3. Pupa - here the larvae becomes inactive and changes into an oval brown hard pupa. 4. Fly - the fly develops within the pupa and then bursts open the pupal case and then trys to find a food source. Following its feed the Flies mate and each female then flies off in search of ripening fruit which she punctures and lays her eggs. The punctures made by the female fly are very small and can usually only be recognised by an experienced person.