In 1999, it was trapped and bred from bananas in East New Britain Province, and is widespread over most of the Gazelle Peninsula. It may have been introduced with infested bananas brought from Mainland PNG as food relief after the devastating 1994 volcanic eruption in Rabaul.
Adults mate at dusk.
Female flies lay 7-12 eggs per fruit. They often oviposit in green and young bananas, and egg hatch may be delayed for up to 11 days while the host fruit is maturing. Laboratory colonies are kept in Papua New Guinea for biological and heat tolerance research. Methyl eugenol trapping and regular host fruit surveys of bananas. Increased trapping, increased host fruit sampling, restriction of fruit movement, protein bait spraying, male annihilation.