Anastrepha suspensa, known as the Caribbean fruit fly, the Greater Antillean fruit fly, guava fruit fly, or the Caribfly, is a species of tephritid fruit fly. As the names suggest, these flies feed on and develop in a variety of fruits, primarily in the Caribbean. They mainly infest mature to overripe fruits. While thought to have originated in Cuba, the Caribbean fruit fly can now also be found in Florida, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico.

Anastrepha suspensa is a small brown and yellow fly that is can be distinguished from similar species by the placement of the veins in the wings. This fly is a pest species and has negative agricultural and economic impacts. Due to their ability to travel great distances (over 120 km) and wide range of adaptability, A. suspensa poses risks to any fruit growing country importing fruit from the Caribbean.

Description 
The adult fly is between 11 and 14 mm long and may appear yellow, orange, brown, or a combination of the three. The setae, or hairlike structures on insects, are red-brown to dark-brown, causing a darker overall appearance. Similar to other species in Anastrepha, their thorax is primarily yellow to orange-brown with slender bands of color running down the thorax to the scutum. In addition, dark spots may be found on the thorax and wings of the fly. The wings often alternate between bands of yellow-brown and brown bands. It may be possible that the yellow and brown color may be adopted from bees to discourage predators, but no studies have thoroughly examined this form of mimicry. Male and female A. suspensa can easily be distinguished. Female A. suspensa have a prominent ovipositor, which is the organ through which a female insect deposits her eggs. The ovipositor is with serrations near the tip for cutting into fruit. A. suspensa may be distinguished from other similar species of Anastrepha by characteristics of the ovipositor and wings.

Anastrepha suspensa is closely related to Anastrepha ludens and shares many characteristics.

Distribution 
As the common name Caribbean fruit fly suggests, A. suspensa has primarily been identified in Caribbean Islands and Central America in countries including the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. A. suspensa has also been found in California and Florida, as well as in French Guiana in South America. Invasive, and doing significant economic harm especially to guava production, in Florida. A. suspensa prefer tropical climates with consistent precipitation. While tropical climates may include anything greater than  of precipitation annually to less than, there has been no distinct preference between these subcategories by A. suspensa.

The spread of A. suspensa throughout the globe has largely been attributed to the movement of spoiled fruit that contained A. suspensa larvae The ability to fly long distances also contribute to the spread of this species.

Food resources/hosts

Anastrepha suspensa have been recorded to infest and consume over 100 foods, most of which have been fruits. These fruits are almost always mature, overripe, or spoiled. These flies seem to prefer consumption of guavas, the Cayenne cherry, rose apple, tropical almonds, grapefruit, and oranges. They have also been noted to infest papaya, Natal plum, kumquat, mango, mombin, and an array of cherries. The data shows that the consumption of different fruit may depend on the location of the A. suspensa. Feeds on 84 plant hosts in 23 families in Florida.

Life history 

Like all Diptera, A. suspensa undergoes 4 main lifestages: egg, larva (with 3 instars or substages), pupa, and adult.

Egg 
Anastrepha suspensa females lay about 200 eggs on the exterior of mature and rotting fruit. The eggs are laid and will hatch in flavedo part of the fruit. A. suspensa eggs are elliptical in shape. The color of these eggs ranges from pale to gleaming white. The anterior end of the egg contains a micropyle, which is an opening for the sperm to enter. On the same end of the egg there is a characteristic polygonal pattern in the surface architecture of the chorion.

Larva 
The larvae which hatch from the eggs are vermiform maggots, similar to other fruit flies. They possess an elongated and cylindrical shape. These larvae progress through 3 instars, or stages between molting. First instar larvae appear clear to pale white. During this period, the mouth hooks are formed and become the main feature. These two sets of thin brown hooks are located on the ventral surface of the larvae. The color of second instar larvae begins to change towards a pale cream color. In this stage, the larvae will begin to develop features like the anterior spiracles to allow oxygen to enter the respiratory system. They will also start to develop small oral ridges and black mouth hooks. Third instar larvae transition from a cream to a light yellow color and are about 8 to 10 mm in length. During this the time, the overall body surface becomes rough and the morphology of the larvae solidifies. The mouth hooks have now transformed into a single pair of sharp, black teeth that are strongly sclerotized. The oral ridges become more distinct, and there are creeping welts that begin to form. Due to the close resemblance of A. suspensa and other species in Anastrepha, it can be difficult the accurately identify A. suspensa larvae.

Larvae and pupae advance from the flavedo towards the center and pulp sections of the fruit as it matures because of the increased sweetness. This then leads to more rapid development. Larvae may feed on the fruit constantly over a 24 hour period. No group sociality has been observed apart from feeding on the same areas.

Pupa 
After completing growth as a larva, the immature A. suspensa transition into a pupa. The pupae are fully encompassed by the hardened skin of the 3rd larval instar which forms a covering called a puparium. The pupae possess an ellipsoid shape and appear golden to reddish-brown. During this phase, there are visible spiracles on the anterior surface that allow for respiration. After completing pupation, the adult fly breaks out of the puparium.

Adult behavior

Mating 
While mating studies were conducted during spring and summer, this species does not undergo winter diapause, so mating behavior may occur throughout the year. During the early morning, males and females often interact on host fruit like guava and Cayenne cherries. The males will be feeding and courting, and the females will be feeding and ovipositing. As temperature and light increase as the morning progresses, males and females will both move to areas under shaded leaves. In afternoon and late afternoon, males compete for single-leaf territories. Since territorial fights are a crucial component to mating; flies that were larger could claim larger territories, demonstrated higher levels of fitness, and had better matting success. In these claimed areas, the males puff to release sex pheromones from glands near their anal canal as scent markings and sing songs to attract females. These pheremones are used as scent markings.

Male A. suspensa make two distinct sounds towards females: the calling song and the precopulatory song. Both of these sounds are created through rapid wing vibrations by the male fly. Male fitness can be communicated through the songs as larger males produce more intense songs. Male size seems to be negatively correlated with frequency of calling songs, but there is no correlation between male size and frequency of precopulatory songs. Females are attracted to areas where the calling song is broadcast, but more research is needed to determine if calling males have higher mating success than males that do not call.

Since unsuccessful precopulatory songs were not as loud and had a broader bandwidth than that of successful songs, it is believed that the precopulatory song may be the last acoustic opportunity for males to display their fitness to the female. This could explain greater mating success for better males giving precopulatory songs due to increased female compliance once a male has mounted. However, longer precopulatory songs correlate with shorter matings. This is thought to occur because longer precopulatory songs are employed by males with mates that are less sexually responsive; therefore, the longer song may be just enough to lead to mating. Since larger males coupled longer, it is believed that the increased strength that comes with size helps in a conflict of interest when it comes to mating between males and females.

Oviposition 
The eggs may be deposited in groups or as individuals based on the size of the fruit. As a form of egg guarding and to prevent overpopulation in a fruit, A. suspensa females have deposit pheromones from anal membranes that deter repeated attempts of oviposition in a fruit. This water-soluble pheromone may deter additional oviposition attempts by A. suspensa for at least 6 days. The plant compounds naringin and quinine inhibit oviposition, reducing the areas in which A. suspensa may inhabit and reproduce.

Natural enemies and control 
For A. suspensa, there are a few natural enemies like P. cindemmaiae and E. annulipes which are parasitoids whose larvae live in and feed upon the fly larvae as their host, eventually killing the fly. Historically, these parasitoids have been introduced by humans in Puerto Rico and Florida to help combat against A. suspensa.

Research has focused on classical biological control of A. suspensa,