Oriental Fruit Fly - Bactrocera dorsalis

This colourful little one is a male Oriental Fruit Fly - Bactrocera dorsalis - which is a tiny little fly just 8mm (adult) long but can cause so much damage to any fruit within its flight range. A female can lay more than 3000 eggs in her lifetime all of which are laid in both cultivated and wild fruit which is ripe or nearly ripe, causing the fruit to be unusable. Endemic to Southeast Asia it is a highly invasive species which now has a presence in at least 65 countries. This one was seen on the spadix of a small peace lily in the gardens of our hotel in Khao Lak, Thailand.

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