Paracantha gentilis is a species of tephritid or fruit fly in the genus Paracantha of the family Tephritidae. (wikipedia.org)
The following year, John Russell Malloch revised the genus Paracantha, and described three new species: P. mimetica, P. mimetica elongata, and P. mexicana. (wikipedia.org)
In 1953, Martin Ladislau Aczél again revised the genus Paracantha of the Americas, and found that these Malloch's species of Paracantha could all be synonymized with Paracantha gentilis. (wikipedia.org)
Unlike many other Tephritidae, even species in Europe that use Cirsium capitula like Urophora solstitialis, P. gentilis does not cause host plants to form galls or host-tissue growth. (wikipedia.org)
Only three genera in Cynareae are represented by native species in the New World, and of these Cirsium is by far the most widely distributed and diverse. (swbiodiversity.org)
Native species of Cirsium range from sea level to alpine and from boreal regions of Canada to the tropics of Central America. (swbiodiversity.org)
Plant1
Third-instar larvae arise by the time anthesis occurs in the Cirsium host plant. (wikipedia.org)