A Picture-winged Fly, Delphinia Picta (Fabricius)

Several of the native picture-winged flies in the family Otitidae often are confused with fruit flies in the family Tephritidae. While the females of most species of Tephritidae oviposit in living, healthy plant tissue and their larvae live and feed in various parts of the plant, the larvae of most species of Otitidae are saprophagic, although a few, such as Tritoxa flexa (Wiedemann) and Tetanops myopaeformis (Roder), attack living plant tissue. One of the picture-winged flies in Florida most often mistaken for a true fruit fly, some of which are important pests of citrus and other fruit, is Delphinia picta (Fabricius). Although the larvae of this fly have been collected from fallen ripe plums, well decayed (verbal report from G. C. Steyskal, 1970), D. picta larvae do not attack fresh, healthy fruit.