Enhancement of Trap Catches of Melon Fruit Fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) by Gel Formulations of Protein Bait

Abstract

Fruit flies (Tephritidae: Diptera) are the devastating insect pests of quarantine importance and damage several vegetable crops particularly of Cucurbitaceae family in tropical, subtropical and temperate zones around the world. As capturing male fruit flies only does not bring desirable reduction in infestation levels, researchers are now focusing on female attractants. Among them, protein baits are prominent. Hence, an improved gel formulation of proteinex bait was tested in field conditions for attracting both the sexes of fruit flies. This study was conducted at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai, Tamil Nadu during 2022. In bitter gourd, gel proteinex bait traps attracted more number of female fruit flies (319.90/trap/4 months) followed by liquid proteinex bait (228.02/trap/4 months). More number of male fruit flies was recorded in cue-lure traps (596.40/trap/4 months) followed by gel proteinex bait traps (291.78/trap/4 months). More female fruit fly catches in gel proteinex traps in bitter gourd indicated the requirement of more proteins for maturation of ovaries in females. Attraction of males to gel proteinex bait clearly showed the importance of protein sources for reproduction success of male fruit flies. Per cent incidence of cucurbit fruit fly was low in gel proteinex bait placed bitter gourd fields (64.18% reduction over control) than the fields in which liquid proteinex bait (49.29% reduction over control) and cue-lure (30.75% reduction over control) were placed. In gel proteinex bait experimental plots, reduction of cucurbit fruit fly incidence was more than the cue-lure. This is due to their high trap catches besides trapping more female fruit flies (602.92 male and female fruit flies as against 596.40 males in cuelure traps) which would have decreased the oviposition levels in the field.