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They arrive inside them still in the form of tiny eggs that will become offspring of an insect called the fruit fly, belonging to the Tephrytydae family. “Once fertilized, these flies pierce the fruit skins to lay their eggs inside”, says biologist Denise Selivon-Scheepmaker, from the University of São Paulo (USP), a specialist in these little animals, which have several genera and species spread around the world. . In Brazil, the most common genus is Anastrepha. The interior of the fruit, a well-protected place rich in food, turns out to be an ideal nursery for the development of future flies. Some species are capable of using different fruits as lodging. Thus, if at a certain time of the year guavas, for example, are not available, they can look for mangoes or peaches to lay their eggs.
But there are also some types of flies that only use one variety of fruit. If so, scientists are still struggling to figure out how these species survive during the off-season.
The growth of their larvae accelerates the rotting of the fruit.
1. With a kind of sting located in the abdomen, the fruit fly breaks the shell and leaves its eggs inside the fruit
2. These eggs turn into larvae that feed on the pulp of the fruit and open tunnels where they live. This favors the proliferation of bacteria that accelerate the rotting of the fruit. For the larvae, this process is important, as the shell becomes permeable, allowing more air to enter and facilitating their breathing.
3. When the fruit falls from the tree, the larva burrows itself a few centimeters into the ground to continue its development in the pupal stage, an intermediate period before full metamorphosis. After ten days, she finally turns into a fly.