Fruit flies damage on selected fruit crops in northeastern ethiopia

Abstract

Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are one of the most diverse pests and pose a major threat to horticultural crops. This study assesses the damage caused by fruit flies on major fruit crops in selected areas of northeastern Ethiopia. The study included the major species viz., Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), Ceratitis capitata (Wiedmann) and C. cosyra (Walkar). Samples of ripe fruits collected for four consecutive weeks, and their examination revealed significantly maximum fruit damage was in guava (79.76), followed by mango (28.26) and 3.8% in sweet orange. Infestation rates of 53.12, 15.7 and 2.67 kg-1; 5.72, 3.82 and 0.67/ fruit adults were observed in guava, mango and sweet orange, respectively. Of these, 4.06 (70.98%), 3.08 (80.63%) and 0.67 (100%) were observed to be of B. dorsalis in guava, mango and sweet orange, respectively.