Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae)
Spotted Wing Drosophila
San Leandro, Alameda County, California
September 16, 2012

I reared 104 of these fruit flies from just seven red raspberries picked from vines in my backyard -- nearly 15 flies per raspberry. The raspberries were just barely ripe and looked perfect for eating when I picked them. Having noticed maggots in other raspberries from my vines, I wanted to find out how many flies there were per raspberry, and if they were really the dreaded spotted wing fruitflies. Unfortunately, they were, and there were many more of them per raspberry than I had guessed. In this photo, males (with the spots on the wings) are on the left, and females (no spots) are on the right. The seven raspberries they emerged from are in the middle. A few of the flies are missing from this photo because they flew off while I was trying to photograph them alive.