Varying infestation of fruit fly, Bactrocera Cucurbitae (Coquillett) in Different Cucurbit Crops

Abstract

The preference of melon fruit fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) to different cucurbit crops was studied November 2014 - April 2015 in farmer field at Thondamuthur, Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu. The maximum adult catches of 10.25/trap/day was recorded from snake gourd cropping field as against minimum catches 2.5 adult/trap/day in bottle gourd field. Regarding infestation of fruits, mean number of mean number of maggots per infested fruit was maximum in snake gourd (10) showing more preference as compared to absence of maggot in bottle gourd indicating the least preference. Studies using penetrometer available in Post-harvest technology centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. Also showed low tissue firmness in 5 days old more preferred snake gourd as compared with high tissue firmness recorded in least preferred 5 days old bottle gourd. The preferences of cucurbit fruits studied under laboratory revealed more hairs 16.6/ microscopic field in bottle gourd as compared minimum hair of 1.4/microscopic field in highly preferred snake gourd indicating more susceptibility and damage.