The oldest populations of mediterranean fruit flies (a.k.a. medflies) can be traced back to the African tropics in the Ethiopian biogeographic region. This species is native to both the Ethiopian and Palearctic regions, and introduced populations have since been discovered in all of the biogeographic regions.

Transportation of fresh fruit by air (either commercially, or incidentally by travelers) has greatly increased the risk of accidental introduction of this species into other parts of the world, and strong efforts are made to prevent its spread.

Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Introduced ); palearctic (Native ); oriental (Introduced ); ethiopian (Native ); neotropical (Introduced ); australian (Introduced ); oceanic islands (Introduced )

Other Geographic Terms: cosmopolitan