''Terellia serratulae'' is a species of tephritid or fruit flies in the family

Tephritidae The Tephritidae are one of two fly families referred to as fruit flies, the other family being the Drosophilidae. The family Tephritidae does not include the biological model organisms of the genus '' Drosophila'' (in the family Drosophilidae ...

Description

''Terellia serratulae'' can reach a length of about . 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 (

tergite A ''tergum'' (Latin for "the back"; : ''terga'', associated adjective tergal) is the Anatomical terms of location#Dorsal and ventral, dorsal ('upper') portion of an arthropod segment other than the head. The Anatomical terms of location#Anterior ...

s). The females deposit eggs into the opened thistle flowerheads. The young larvae start feeding on the

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple fruit, simple dry fruits, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and Dehi ...

s of thistles (mainly ''

Cirsium ''Cirsium'' is a genus of Perennial plant, perennial and Biennial plant, biennial flowering plants in the Asteraceae, one of several genera known commonly as thistles. They are more precisely known as plume thistles. These differ from other thist ...

'' and ''

Carduus ''Carduus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, and the tribe Cardueae, one of two genera considered to be true thistles, the other being ''Cirsium''. Plants of the genus are known commonly as plumeless thistles.

'' 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 Voltinism is a term used in biology to indicate the number of broods or generations of an organism in a year. The term is most often applied to insects, and is particularly in use in sericulture, where silkworm varieties vary in their voltinism. ...

species overwinters in the larval stage. Adults are on the wing from July to September.

Distribution and habitat

This species can be found around thistles in most of Europe, in the eastern

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The ...

, in the

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

, and in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

.Fauna Europaea
/ref>

References

External links

LES TEPHRITIDES (TRYPETIDES)
Tephritinae Diptera of Europe Insects described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Tephritinae-stub