Tephritis formosa is a Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an species of tephritid fly

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...

 also known by the common name Gall Fly (a huge number of other flies also use this common name). Adults females are about 5-6mm in length with wings of about 4-5mm, males are slightly smaller being about 4-5mm in length with wings of about 4-4.5mm. The host plants for the larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

 are Hawksbeard

Crepis

Crepis, commonly known in some parts of the world as hawksbeard or hawk's-beard , is a genus of about 200 annual and perennial flowering plants of the family Asteraceae superficially resembling the dandelion, the most conspicuous difference being that Crepis usually has branching...

, Cat's ear

Hypochaeris

Hypochaeris is a genus of plants in the family Asteraceae. Many species are known as cat's ear. These are annual and perennial herbs generally bearing flower heads with yellow ray florets....

 and Sow-thistle

Sonchus

Sonchus is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae. Most of the species are annual herbs, a few are perennial, and some are even woody...

 flower heads, causing galls to form.

Global distribution

Tephritis formosa is found in most countries across Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. Outside of Europe, it can also be found in the Near East region.