Phylogeny, Biology, Behavior, and Management of Tephritid Fruit Flies: an Overview

Tephritid fruit flies are a diverse group of phytophagous insects within Diptera with more than 4000 described species. Some tephritids have been thoroughly studied due to their economic importance. Nevertheless, Tephritidae includes numerous species and entire subfamilies that are harmless to man and that in some cases have been beneficial (weed biocontrol agents). Tephritids are acalypterate flies that exhibit a typical holometabolous life cycle (egg, larvae, pupae, adult). Behavior in this group is as diverse as the family itself, oviposition occurs in a number of substrates and different strategies can be used by different species. Different groups exhibit also different mating systems and different courtship repertoires. Due to their economic importance control methods have been developed and refined to deal with the more than 70 pest species, with a tendency to rely less on broad spectrum chemical applications moving towards biological control and other biorational methods integrated into management systems.