Sunflower Maggot Fly

Strauzia longipennis · Order: Diptera · Family: Tephritidae

Also called: Sunflower Maggot

Damages trees, gardens or crops. It is a minor pest of sunflowers; its larvae mine stems causing light damage.

Sunflower Maggot Fly — Photo: Theo Rickert, CC BY

Adult Sunflower Maggot Flies are about 6 mm long with 7 mm wings and are yellow-orange with distinctive orange-brown F-shaped wing markings. The larvae are yellowish-white, about 5 mm long, feed inside sunflower stems for roughly a month, then overwinter as pupae in the plant base or soil. Adults appear from May through August, depending on location.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Adults measure about 6 mm in length with wings about 7 mm long, which is relatively large for a tephritid fly.

Source: Wikipedia

Is it a pest in the house?

It is a minor pest whose stem-mining larvae cause only light damage.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

Adults are found from May to August, varying with location.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

Larvae mine the stems of sunflowers (Helianthus spp.) and are considered a minor pest. Larvae are yellowish-white, about 5 mm long, feed inside the stem for around 30 days, then pupate in the plant base or soil.

Source: Wikipedia

When you see it

The flight period of the adults spans May through August.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 30 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Pennsylvania, Maine, Kansas, Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois, Minnesota, New York.

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Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Sunflower Maggot Fly photo 2 — Photo: Healthy Yards, CC BY

Sunflower Maggot Fly photo 3 — Photo: Theo Rickert, CC BY

Sunflower Maggot Fly photo 4 — Photo: cwwood, CC BY-SA

Sunflower Maggot Fly photo 5 — Photo: psweet, CC BY-SA

Questions people ask

What plants do the larvae damage?

The larvae mine the stems of sunflowers, causing light damage.

Source: Wikipedia

When are adult Sunflower Maggot Flies active?

Adults are present from May through August, depending on location.

Source: Wikipedia

How can I tell this fly apart from similar species?

It has a yellow-orange body and an F-shaped orange-brown band on the wing tip, unlike Gymnocarena diffusa and Neotephritis finalis which have different feeding habits.

Source: Wikipedia