iris fly? - identified

J. Agoston agoston.janos123@gmail.com
Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:46:41 PDT
Dear All,

Today I was at the Uni, we were lucky the fly was in the books. It is not
common, but not rare too, and very special, it only eats irises. The name is
Cerodontha iridis (syn. Dizygomyza iridis, iris leafminer). It has more than
one generations in a year. Host plants are: I. crocea, ochrloeuca =
orientalis, spuria, foetidissima and their cultivars. The larvae turn to
pupa in june, and new flies (2nd generation!) mate in july, lay new eggs to
the top of the leaves. The first generation mates in april or may. It can
eat all the leaves down, especially the second generation, if overlooked.

The fly was in a very useful book, unfortunately it is no longer available,
but I try to ge a copy from the library. (It is written in hungarian...)

So I expect the new flies may come out in early june. Try to make good
pictures.


All the best,
Jan
Z5a, Hungary


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