Fly Stumps Experts; Next Stop: Australia
A mysterious fruit fly found a week ago in a Granada Hills peach tree is flying to Australia in search of its identity.
A University of Hawaii entomologist, who tried to identify the dead insect after it baffled California experts, also failed, said Gera Curry, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Curry said the dead fly was put on a plane to Australia on Thursday, and it will probably take a week or two before officials in Sacramento learn whether entomologists Down Under are able to identify the insect.
“It vindicates our people,” Curry said of the Hawaiian expert’s failure. “It shows that this fly indeed is rare.”
The Granada Hills fly was found in a cardboard trap near White Oak Avenue and Index Street, one of 150,000 traps scattered about the state for routine pest monitoring.
Los Angeles County agricultural inspectors responded to the discovery by installing 130 more traps in a nine-square-mile area of Granada Hills and Northridge to check for an infestation of the strange insect.
Officials said Thursday that no more of the unidentified flies have been found.
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