Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring says the spotted-wing drosophila (droh-SAH'-fih-leh) can be confused with the common fruit fly. But he says it prefers fresh fruit, while the common fruit fly prefers rotting fruit.
The pest is native to Asia. It was first found in the U.S. in 2008, in California, and has since spread to other parts of the country.
Goehring says a sample submitted from the Carrington Research Extension Center to the North Dakota State University Plant Diagnostic Laboratory contained several cherries with spotted-wing drosophila larvae and one adult female.
