Bactrocera tryoni

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Queensland fruit fly

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Family:	Tephritidae
Genus:	Bactrocera
Species:	B. tryoni

Binomial name

Bactrocera tryoni
(Froggatt, 1897)

Synonyms

Tephritis tryoni
Chaetodacus tryoni var. sarcocephali
Chaetodacus tryoni var. juglandis

Bactrocera tryoni is a species known as the Queensland fruit fly. Bactrocera is a genus of a kind of small flies. It is native to Australia.

Its size is similar to Drosophila melanogaster, (which belongs to a different family, the Drosophilidae), about 2 mm in length in adult stage. However, it has quite some distinctive phenotypical characteristics to Drosophila, for example its body colour. The Queensland fruit flies have been known for its damage to the farming industry and have gone through scientific research often by Australian scientists.

[edit] The white gene

One gene present in the genome of B. tryoni is the white gene. Its sequence on Bactrocera tryoni is completely homologous (the same), to the white gene found in Drosophila DNA. When this gene is mutated in D. melanogaster, it makes the eyes of that fly to become white. However, when this gene is mutated in B. tryoni the eye colour of that Queensland fruit fly remains unchanged to the wild type. The exact function of this gene in both Drosophila and B. tryoni is still undergoing research.^{[citation needed]}