The Lonicera fly, a hybrid in the genus Rhagoletis, is a North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n fruit fly of the family Tephritidae

Tephritidae

Tephritidae is one of two fly families referred to as "fruit flies", the other family being Drosophilidae. Tephritidae does not include the biological model organisms of the genus Drosophila , which is often called the "common fruit fly". There are nearly 5,000 described species of tephritid...

. Its larvae feed on the berries of species of introduced

Introduced species

An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...

 honeysuckle

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to the Northern Hemisphere. There are about 180 species of honeysuckle, 100 of which occur in China; Europe, India and North America have only about 20 native species each...

 (Lonicera) that were brought to America within the last 250 years as ornamental plant

Ornamental plant

Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...

s. A research team led by Dietmar Schwarz

Dietmar Schwarz

Dietmar Schwarz is a German rower, who competed for the SC Dynamo Berlin/ Sportvereinigung Dynamo. He won the medals at the international rowing competitions.- References :...

 has argued that it most likely developed within that time by hybridization of two other species: R. mendax

Rhagoletis mendax

Rhagoletis mendax is a species of tephritid fruit fly known by the common name blueberry maggot. It is a major pest of blueberry crops in the eastern and southern United States and eastern Canada. It attacks several species of blueberry and related plants. The larva is 5 to 8 millimeters long and...

, the blueberry

Blueberry

Blueberries are flowering plants of the genus Vaccinium with dark-blue berries and are perennial...

 maggot, and R. zephyria

Rhagoletis zephyria

Rhagoletis zephyria is a species of tephritid or fruit flies in the genus Rhagoletis of the family Tephritidae....

, the snowberry maggot. Few cases of animal

Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...

 species arising from hybridization are known (see Pomarine Skua

Pomarine Skua

The Pomarine Skua, Stercorarius pomarinus, known as Pomarine Jaeger in North America, is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is a migrant, wintering at sea in the tropical oceans.- Taxonomy :...

 or Mariana Mallard

Mariana Mallard

The Mariana Mallard or Oustalet's Duck is an extinct type of duck of the genus Anas that was endemic to the Mariana Islands...

), although with DNA analysis more are being found.

External links

• http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2005/08/08-03-05tdc/08-03-05dnews-04.asp
• http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7050/suppinfo/nature03800.html