vinegar fly

8.4

A small fly that lays eggs on rotting fruit or open jars of sweet food

noun
/ˈvɪnɪɡər flaɪ/

: mosca de la fruta

The kitchen attracted a swarm of vinegar flies after a jar of jam was left open.

Examples

Fruit vendors often have to deal with vinegar flies hovering near their produce.
She was annoyed to find several vinegar flies around the bowl of overripe peaches.
I found a vinegar fly in my fruit bowl.
The vinegar flies are attracted to overripe bananas.
The vinegar fly was buzzing around the overripe fruit on the kitchen counter.
To get rid of the vinegar fly, she cleaned up the spilled juice and sealed the fruit properly.
His kitchen became infested with vinegar flies after he forgot to cover the leftover compost.

Synonyms

fruit fly

vsvinegar fly

14 2.6

A small flying insect whose young eat and spoil ripe or rotten fruit

prefers fermenting or preserved foods especially if not sealed

pomace fly

vsvinegar fly

Specialized

8.3

A small insect whose young eat rotten fruit like very ripe bananas

also infests preserved foods when containers are not sealed

Drosophilidae

vsvinegar fly

Specialized

9.9

A family of small fruit flies often used in science

is a specific species that targets fermenting and preserved foods

Surface Forms

vinegar fly singular

vinegar flies plural

Morphology

vinegar + fly

The noun–noun compound denotes a type of fly associated with vinegar or fermenting/sour food, so its meaning is directly derivable from combining 'vinegar' (sour liquid/fermented substance) with 'fly' (insect). This modifier+head pattern is productive and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the intended referent.

Etymology

The name vinegar fly comes from people seeing tiny flies around jars of vinegar and rotten fruit, where their young eat the food as it turns sour. So, the name shows it is a 'small fly that likes sour, rotting fruit'.