Oviposition stimulants of the peach fruit fly Bactrocera zonata [saunders] [diptera: tephritidae] under laboratory conditions

The peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata [Saunders], is present in large numbers in most of Egypt's provinces displacing extant populations of the mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata [Wiedemann], and causing serious damage to the horticulture industry. The present study aims to investigate certain natural oviposition stimulants on egg depositing under laboratory conditions of 23 +/- 0.8 °C, 69.32% +/- 1.73 RH. In addition, some biological aspects of adults collected from naturally infested guava and mandarin fruits. Results showed that the numbers of eggs harvested from perforated cups supplied with mandarin juice were highly significantly exceeding the other stimulants. No significant differences of harvested eggs were observed between banana, orange, guava, mango, and orange juices. Total numbers of eggs/ female were 92.41 and 235.21 for females collected from guava and mandarin fruits, respectively. This investigation indicates that the mandarin juice serve as a more convenient stimulant for mass production and the perforated cups are feasible alternative as a collection device for eggs in mass rearing of B. zonata