Tephritidae represent one of the largest families of dipterans with about 5000 species reported across the world in six subfamilies, 500 genera, 40 tribes and subtribes (Norrbom et al., 1999 and Freidberg, 2006). In India, nearly 284 species are recorded in 84 genera and five subfamilies namely Dacinae, Phytalmiinae, Tachiniscinae, Tephritinae and Trypetinae (Kapoor, 1993, Agarwal and Sueyoshi, 2005; David and Ramani, 2011; David et al., 2013; David and Hancock 2013 and David et al., 2014; David et al., 2017; David & Ramani, 2019). Though majority of the members in Tephritidae are known to be frugivorous they show extreme diversity in their habits. Apart from frugivorous taxa like Bactrocera Macquart, Carpomya Costa, Zeugodacus Hendel and Dacus Fabricius, Tephritidae comprise several species of leafminers as in Stemonocera Rondani, Hemilea Loew and Vidalia; Gastrozonini, a tribe feeding exclusively on bamboo shoots; saprophytic flies in subfamily Phytalmiinae; flowers feeders and gall makers in subfamily Tephritinae and even species with parasitic mode of life as in Tachiniscinae.
In this database, the diagnostic characters of family Tephritidae are depicted with illustrations apart from an illustrative account of Terminology used in fruit fly classification. Fact sheets have been arranged subfamily wise with a short description of its identifying characters and biology. Click on the subfamily name to view the factsheets of taxa under each subfamily.
