Yellow or purple: African fig fly (Zaprionus indianus Gupta, 1970) capture using colored baits

Abstract

Zaprionus indianus Gupta, 1970 (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is an invasive species of African origin with its first record in Brazil in 1999. The species quickly dispersed throughout Brazil and produced significant impacts on fig culture. It is currently considered a potential pest of berries, which justifies the investigation of techniques that enable their capture. In this sense, the objective of this study is to evaluate the attractiveness of bait colors in Z. indianus capturing from locations with different degrees of urbanization. For this, traps with yellow and purple baits were used and the relative abundance in the capture in areas with different degrees of urbanization was evaluated. Our results indicated a higher Z. indianus capture in environments with a high degree of urbanization using the purple. The capture using attractants is highly effective, and we noticed that for places where there are populations with large numbers of individuals, the visual stimulus inside the bait is a variable of great attractiveness for this species, mainly by purple baits.