Burdock fly
Tephritis bardanae
The burdock fly is a small fly with patterned wings. Its babies live inside the round, prickly flower heads of burdock plants. There they make the plant grow a lump called a gall.
Lives in
Europe, on burdock plants
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting people.
What does it eat?
The larvae feed inside burdock flower heads.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Burdock fly about 8 km/h (5 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It belongs to the picture-winged flies, which have pretty patterns on their wings.
2
In autumn each larva turns into a pupa inside a hard black case.
3
Its family is called fruit flies in North America and gall flies in Britain and Ireland.
you asked
Most asked questions about Burdock fly
?Is the burdock fly harmful?
No. It is harmless to people and only lives in burdock flower heads.
?Where do burdock fly babies live?
Inside the flower heads of burdock plants, where they make galls.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Tephritis bardanae
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Tephritidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Tephritidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Tephritis bardanae (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 AfroBrazilian. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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