Taxonomy and Biology of Economically Important Fruit Flies of India

摘要

The major fruit fly pests in India belong to the genus Bactrocera: B. cucurbitae (Coquillett), B. dorsalis (Hendcl) and B. zonata (Saundcrs). Other species of Bactrocera, such as B. correcta (Bezzi), B. diversa (Coquillett) and B. latifrons (Hendel),although moderate pests, arc localized in their distribution. B. correcta is occasionally reported to dominate B. zonata and B. dorsalis on mango. To date, five or six species of the B. dorsalis complex have been recorded in India, and at least 10 species may occur there, as well as three or four species of the B. zonata complex. B. tau (Walker) and B. scutellaris (Bezzi) have not been recognized even as moderate pests, whereas B. caudata (Walker) is still not fully confirmed in India. The pest status of B. oleae Gmelin has not yet been determined by the olive growers. Dacus ciliatus Loew sometimes becomes a serious pest of squash melons, dominating B. cucurbitae. Amongst the non-dacinc species, the capsule fly, Acanthiophilus helianthi (Rossi), and Carpomva vesuviana (Costa) are cause of concern: outbreaks of the capsule fly are sometimes serious on safflower, and C. vesuviana (bcr fly) appears to be becoming a major pest of ber. The useful fruit flies include some species that damage local weeds. Procecidochares utilis (Stone), a native of Mexico, is well established on crofton weed. Several other useful fruit fly species, such as Dacus persicus Hendel, Ensina sonchi (Linnaeus), Urophora stylata (Fabricius), and D. sororcula (Wiedemann), attack weeds belonging to Calotropis, Sonchus, Cirsium and Bidens, respectively. Taxonomic, biological and economic information on all these species is given, including data from SEM studies to determine useful but previously unknown taxonomic characters.