Eurosta solidaginis (Diptera:Tephritidae) ---------------------------------- --return

on Solidago species (Asteracea)

Eurosta solidaginis
Female and Male Flies mate on Solidago host plants
Solidago gigantea and Solidago altissima

Goldenrod
Solidago gigantea and Solidago altissima occur sympatrically throughout Minnesota, USA

S. gigantea has a smooth waxy stem
S. altissima has a hairy stem

Natural Enemies of

Eurosta solidaginis

Parasitoids
Eurytoma gigantea
(Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae)

 

 


Inquiline
Mordellistena
convicta

 

 


Bird Predation
Downy woodpecker

The host races of Eurosta solidaginis produce morphologically distinct galls on the two species of Solidago altissima and Solidago gigantea (Craig et al. 1993, 1994, 1997).

The E. solidaginis host race on S. altissima also forms two geographical races in the forest and prairie biomes in Midwest USA on two S. altissima subspecies: S. a. altissima and S. a. gilvocanescens (Craig and Itami 2007)