True Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae): Systematics and natural history

Speaker: Allen L. Norrbom, Ph.D., Research Entomologist, Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture

True fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are a diverse (5000+ spp.) family of acalyptrate flies, including some of the most important pests of agricultural crops, such as mango, citrus, apple, cherries and many others. The larvae of most species are phytophagous and feed on a variety of plant tissues. This presentation reviews their diversity and natural history and discusses research on their taxonomy and phylogeny, in particular an ongoing study of the phylogeny of the family and analyses of the phylogeny and diagnostics of Anastrepha, the largest and most economically important genus in the American tropics and subtropics.

Speaker Bio: Allen Norrbom earned a BS in Biology at Drexel University (1980) and an MS (1983) and PhD (1985) in Entomology at Penn State University. Since joining the Systematic Entomology Laboratory in 1985, he has been responsible for conducting research on the systematics of plant-feeding flies (mainly Tephritidae), managing and curating parts of the National Museum of Natural History Diptera collection and providing authoritative identifications of fly specimens intercepted at ports-of-entry and other detection programs. He has authored or coauthored more than 150 scientific papers, predominantly on the taxonomy and biology of Tephritidae.