Seasonal Abundance of Fruit Fly, Bactrocera species (Diptera: Tephritidae) with Respect to Environmental Factors in Guava and Mango Orchards
Seasonal Abundance of Fruit Fly, Bactrocera species (Diptera: Tephritidae) with Respect to Environmental Factors in Guava and Mango Orchards
Muhammad Hamayoon Khan*, Niaz Hussain Khuhro, Muhammad Awais, Muhammad Usman Asif and Raza Muhammad
ABSTRACT
The tephritid fruit flies are the major pests of horticultural crops across the globe. In Pakistan, two fruit fly species, Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) and B. dorsalis (Hendel) cause severe qualitative and quantitative damages to various fruits. The present study was executed to record the population dynamics of these fruit fly species in guava and mango orchards with respect to meteorological factors using methyl eugenol-baited traps. The results revealed that population of both the species highly fluctuated round the year. B. zonata appeared to be the most abundant species both in mango and guava orchards as compared to B. dorsalis. The highest mean number of B. zonata (3690.57 flies/trap) was captured in August 2018 in guava orchard. From October, 2018 onward up to February 2019, population of B. zonata tended to decline with the lowest catches (122.5 and 152.8 flies/trap, respectively) in January and February, 2019. In mango orchard, peak population of B. zonata (4062.8 flies/trap) was recorded in May, 2019. Abundance of B. dorsalis in guava orchard reached to its peak (394.625 flies/trap) in August, 2018. However, in mango orchard, an increasing trend in population was observed from April onward with the highest catches of 521.4 flies/trap in June. The correlation matrix revealed a significantly positive relation among the incidence of B. zonata and minimum and maximum temperatures and sunshine hours whereas relative humidity (R.H.) and rainfall were found to have a negative correlation with B. zonata abundance. Correlation analysis of B. dorsalis catches with respect to meteorological data revealed a significantly positive correlation of monthly captured flies with all the climatic factors such as maximum temperature, minimum temperature, R.H. and sunshine duration except the mean monthly rainfall.
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June 2021
Vol. 34, Iss. 2, Pages 254-493
