Strauzia longipennis

Strauzia longipennis is a large species of tephritid fruit fly known by the common name sunflower maggot fly. It is a minor pest being a plant miner of sunflowers and related plants, damage within flower receptacle from larval feeding on spongy tissue is usually light.

Strauzia longipennis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Family:	Tephritidae
Subfamily:	Trypetinae
Genus:	Strauzia
Species:	S. longipennis
Binomial name
Strauzia longipennis ([[[Christian Rudolph Wilhelm Wiedemann|Wiedemann]], 1830])
Synonyms
Strauzia armata Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 Strauzia inermis Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 Tephritis trimaculata Macquart, 1843 Trypeta cornifera Walker, 1849 Trypeta cornigera Walker, 1849 Trypeta longipennis Wiedemann, 1830 Trypeta longipennis var. confluens Loew, 1873 Trypeta longipennis var. typica Loew, 1873 Trypeta sepentaria Harris, 1835 Trypeta septenaria Osten Sacken, 1858 Trypeta serpentaria Johnson, 1925

Adults are about 6 mm long and a wing length of approximately 7 mm. (reasonably large for a Tephritid) The body is creamy-white and the wings have a mottled yellowish-brown appearance, with distinct F shaped marking near the wing tips. The larvae are yellowish-white in colour reaching a length of about 5 mm and spend around 30 days feeding within the host plant before overwintering in the soil as pupae. Adults are found from mid-July through to August.

There are two other species of Tephritid fly known as Sunflower Maggot, these are Gymnocarena diffusa which feeds on stem pith and Neotephritis finalis which feeds on the sunflower seeds.