Population fluctuation of fruit flies in cucurbit ecosystem

Abstract

The population fluctuation of the fruit flies, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) and Bactrocera tau (Walker) was recorded in the cucurbit ecosystem at weekly internal from 30th standard meteorological week (SMW) to 29th SMW of next year by installing the fruit fly traps charged with a Cue lure in cucurbits field. The population of adult flies of B. cucurbitae was noticed throughout the period in traps, however, the peak activity was recorded from third week of September to the last week of October with a distinct peak in the last week of September, coinciding with the fruiting season of cucurbits. The activity of B. tau was noticed from 30th to 36th SMW. The maximum catch of flies was 196.33 flies/trap in 38 SMW, and no incidence of the flies was noticed from 1 SMW to 18 SMW. The correlation of B. cucurbitae population with weather parameters indicated that the fly catch in the cue lure baited trap had a significantly positive correlation with average temperature and negative correlation with bright sunshine hours. B. tau had significant positive correlation with maximum relative humidity and negative correlation with bright sunshine hour.