| Abstrakt: |
One of the most significant agricultural pests in Southeast Asia is Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel). It is the most destructive pest in India, followed by B. zonata (Saunders) and B. correcta (Bezzi). Baits and sprays of conventional insecticides affect non-target beneficial fauna. For the management of this pest, sterile insect technique (SIT) has been proposed as an alternate and environmentally friendly method. The prerequisites for SIT, however, include biology and the mass rearing of fruit flies on semi-artificial diets. In this context, an attempt was made to investigate the biology of B. dorsalis on two novel hosts, Jamun and Sweet orange, as well as the development of a semi-synthetic diet. According to B. dorsalis biology, the egg, larval, and pupal periods on Jamun were 1.8±0.78, 7.6±0.51 and 8.9±0.87 days, respectively. Whereas, on sweet orange, the egg, larval, and pupal periods were 2.9±0.73, 8.7±0.82 and 9.8±0.78 days, respectively. Adult longevity of female files was more as compared to males. Banana powder based diet has yielded the highest egg hatchability (82.66±2.51%), pupal recovery (75.32±2.33%) and adult emergence (91.15±3.05%). This paper concluded that banana based diet was the best suitable larval diet for mass rearing B. dorsalis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
