Abstract
The peach fruit fly Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) is a serious pest of different fruits and vegetables in Pakistan inflicting economical damages. A laboratory experiment was conducted to determine the oviposition preference of the peach fruit fly for different fruits including guava, banana, citrus, ber, chikoo and apple under free or no choice conditions. Results showed that the guava was the most preferred host with mean pupal recovery of 318.00 ± 4.61 pupa/fruit (p/f) under free choice and 434 ± 2.64 p/f under no choice conditions, followed by banana (266.00 ± 4.5 p/f) in free choice and ber (177.00 ± 2.08 p/f) in no choice experiment. Whereas, apple and citrus were least preferred hosts. Key words: Bactrocera zonata, host preference, oviposition.
Highlights
Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) cause most of the damage to fruits and vegetables in the Indo-Pak subcontinent
A laboratory experiment was conducted to determine the oviposition preference of the peach fruit fly for different fruits including guava, banana, citrus, ber, chikoo and apple under free or no choice conditions
The peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata (Saunders), is a serious polyphagous pest originated in the South and South-East Asia where it attacks more than 50 host plants, including guava, mango, peach, apricot, fig and citrus (White and Elson-Harris, 1992; Ghanim, 2009)
Summary
Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) cause most of the damage to fruits and vegetables in the Indo-Pak subcontinent. The members of the sub-family Dacinae infest almost all kinds of fleshy fruits, including solanaceous and cucurbitaceous plants. Host specific in their feeding habits, while others are generalists and attack a wide range of fruits and vegetables (Kapoor et al, 1980). The peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata (Saunders), is a serious polyphagous pest originated in the South and South-East Asia where it attacks more than 50 host plants, including guava, mango, peach, apricot, fig and citrus (White and Elson-Harris, 1992; Ghanim, 2009). The favorable hosts of these fruit flies species in Pakistan are guava (Psidium guajava), mango (Mangifera indica), apple (Malus domestica), ber (Zizyphus jujube), musk melon (Cucumis melo) and bitter gourd (Momordica charantia), (Khan and Musakhel, 1999; Sultan et al, 2000; Ahmad et al, 2005)
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