Cotton-gall tephritid
The cotton-gall tephritid is a small fly with a clever trick. The mother lays an egg on the bud of a shrub called rubber rabbitbrush. The plant then grows a lump called a gall around it, and the baby fly grows up safe inside.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
When the mother lays her egg on a bud, the plant grows a gall, a kind of lump, around it.
The larva lives and grows inside the gall all through the autumn.
It belongs to the family of fruit flies called tephritids, which often have patterned wings.
Most asked questions about Cotton-gall tephritid
?What is a gall?
A gall is a lump that a plant grows around an insect egg or larva. For this fly it is a cosy home for its baby.
?Is the cotton-gall tephritid dangerous?
No. It is a small fly that does not bite or sting.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Aciurina bigeloviae
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Tephritidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Tephritidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Aciurina bigeloviae (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Robert Webster Depicted place: San Juan County, US-NM, US ( 36°46′53″N 108°41′26″W / 36.7813480556°N 108.6905558333°W / 36.7813480556; -108.6905558333 ). CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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