Resistance of Pineapple Variety 59-443 to Field Populations of Oriental Fruit Flies and Melon Flies1

Abstract

The variety 59-443 of pineapple, Ananas comosus (L.) Merr., cannot be shipped to the mainland of the United States as fresh fruit without fumigation with ethylene dibromide to prevent the introduction of the 3 species of Hawaiian Tephritidae (Anonymous 1968). The parentage of variety 59-443 includes ‘Smooth Cayenne,’ ‘Pernambuco,’ ‘Smooth Guatemala,’ and ‘Ruby’ in the ratio of 9:3:2:2, respectively, and except for porosity, brix of 16.0, acidity of 0.70, and translucence of 3.5 are similar to ‘Smooth Cayenne’ (J. B. Smith, Dole Company, 650 Iwilei Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817, personal communication, 1972). The fruit is less porous than Smooth Cayenne as indicated by the values of porosity of 3.5 and 2.7, respectively (1.0 maximum and 4.0 least). Fruit for this study were grown on the Island of Lanai, which has a land area of only 141 mile and contains many hosts of these species: Cucurbitacea; papaya, Carica papaya L.; mango, Mangifera indica L.; avocado, Persea americana Mill.; plus various Citrus in backyards in Lanai City; guava, Psidium guajava L., on many parts of the island; and the weedy form of balsam pear, Momordica charantia L. (Neal 1965), in and about the pineapple fields.