Studies on parasitism preference of Dirhinus giffardii (SILV.) on Bactrocera cucurbitae (COQ.) pupae reared on different host vegetables

Abstract

The Melon fruit fly Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) is a severe pest of different vegetables and fruits in Pakistan inflicting economical damages. It has been widely documented that food is positively correlated with the biological parameters of the insects. Therefore an experiment was conducted to determine the parasitism preference of pupal parasitoid Dirhinus giffardii on B. cucurbitae pupae reared on different vegetables including Bottle gourd (L. siceraria), Bitter gourd (M. charantia), Ridge gourd (L. acutangula), Round gourd (P. fistulosus) and Cucumber (C. Sativus) under no choice and free choice experiments. Results revealed that significantly higher (P<0.05) parasitization (24.8±0.48) and female (12.4±0.68) were yielded when the pupae of B. cucurbitae were reared on Cucumis sativus under no choice test. Similarly maximum number of parasitized pupae (10.0±0.31) and female (4.4±0.24) were recovered from pupae reared on C. sativus under free choice test. Furthermore studies showed that pupae of B. cucurbitae were more preferred for parasitization when reared on C. sativus followed by L. siceraria and L. acutangula under no choice test whereas pupae of B. cucurbitae less preferred for parasitization when supplied with L. acutangula and L. siceraria under free choice test.