Olive Fly

(Dacus oleae), an insect of the family of fruit flies.

The body of the olive fly is reddish yellow and 4-5 mm in length; the center of the back is black, with four gray longitudinal stripes. There are black spots on the sides of the abdomen, and the wings are transparent, with a dark spot at the tip. The larvae are white and cylindrically shaped. The olive fly is found in southern Europe (primarily on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea), Asia (Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and northwestern India), and most of Africa. It is a pest of olive trees; as the larvae develop in the fruits of both cultivated and wild olives, they bore passageways through them. The olive fly produces three to six generations annually. The primary countermeasure is to quarantine infested areas.