Mediterranean black fig fly, Silba adipata McAlpine (Diptera: Lonchaeidae), recorded from South Africa

The black fig fly, Silba adipata McAlpine, 1956 (Lonchaeidae), an agricultural pest species previously known only from the Mediterranean and Middle East regions, has been found in South Africa for the first time. It has been reared from cultivated figs, Ficus carica L., collected at Hermanus, Somerset West, Stellenbosch, Klapmuts and Porterville in the Western Cape Province. During 2006, flies emerged initially on 15 November from the domestic fig cultivar 'White Genoa' growing in a home garden at Somerset West.