Monitoring of Population Dynamics and Fruits Infestation of Tephritid Fruit Flies(Diptera: Tephritidae) in Guava ( Psidium guajava L.) Orchard

Guava ( Psidium guajava L.), is one of the most important commercial fruits and its various parts are used for the development of a variety of industrial and pharmaceutical products. The fruit as well as its juice are freely consumed for their great taste and nutritional benefits. Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are considered the key insects of guava fruit production causing yield losses and quality degradation. This paper explains studies made on monitoring of fruit flies through the use of methyl eugenol as a trapping to measure their distribution and abundance, whilst their damage monitored using periodic fruit samplings to assess the percentage infestation in guava orchard. One tephritid species namely the Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) was the most frequent, constant and dominant species associated with guava at the experimental site. Fruit fly analysis by traps installation in guava orchard characterized high population frequenc y of B. zonata (116.67 - 307.58) captured per trap per week in June to August and accounting for 8.05 - 18.59% fruit infestation values recorded. Pest incidence in field continued till the whole year, but more damage started at the ripening fruiting stage. The fruit infestation intensity exhibited a high link with fruit flies density on the host plant. The results of this study have important implications on the decision - making process for the safe and effective monitoring and management strategies to give info rmation on fruit fly activity in an area to determine whether the number of pests are increasing or decreasing in the locality.