Evaluation of host susceptibility, preference and offspring performance of Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera:
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Evaluation of host susceptibility, preference and offspring performance of Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera: Tephritidae) on different hosts Muzammil Farooq 1
&
Sangita Baig 1,2 & Sabyan Faris Honey 1 & Babar Ehsan Bajwa 1 & Fazlullah 1 & Iqbal Hussain Shah 2
Received: 19 April 2019 / Accepted: 7 October 2019 # African Association of Insect Scientists 2019
Abstract The melon fruit fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) is a quarantine insect pest worldwide and affects the vegetable quality through its direct feeding and indirectly by passing way for secondary pathogens. This study investigated the host susceptibility, preference and offspring performance of Z. cucurbitae under the laboratory conditions. Different vegetable hosts i.e., brinjal (Solanum melongena L.), bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.), zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L.), bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria [Molina] Standley) and cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) were tested under no choice and free choice tests. Results showed that C. sativus and C. pepo have highest number of visits/host and oviposition puncture/host. C. sativus showed highest pupal recovery and pupal weight in both only choice and free choice test. While, highest percentage of emergence and female off springs were observed in C. pepo under only choice and free choice scenarios. Furthermore, maximum deformities in progeny were observed in case of L. siceraria under both test case scenarios. The current study provides exploratory support that fruit flies respond differently to host species that co-exists in field under choice and no choice test. Further, hosts of advantage to fruit flies are adopted more. The host and choice preference of fruit flies have the influence on the pest management strategies for the vegetable crops. Keywords Cucumis sativus . Cucurbita pepo . Free choice test . Fruit fly . Recovered pupae . Zeugodacus cucurbitae
Introduction The melon fruit fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera: Tephritidae) is distributed throughout tropical, subtropical countries (Fletcher 1987) and considered as federal quarantine pest in Asia and Hawaii (Allwood et al. 1999). Its damage can cause 30 to 100% losses in vegetables depending on environmental conditions and crop susceptibility (Kabir et al. 1991; Gupta and Verma 1992; Dhillon et al. 2005). In Pakistan, where adequate management practices are not being implemented in cucurbits, losses have been estimated at 24%
* Muzammil Farooq [email protected] 1
Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI), Regional Bioscience Centre (Central & West Asia), 1-A opposite Data Gunj Bakhsh Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
2
Department of Agriculture Gilgit Baltistan, Gilgit, Pakistan
(Stonehouse et al. 1998). Female Z. cucurbitae punctures the soft skin of host with the ovipositor and lays eggs below fruit exocarp (Mir et al. 2014). The actual damage is inflicted by the feeding action of the larval stage which consumes fruit pulp and by burrows inside the fruit, thereby creating entr
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