الملخص الإنجليزي
Fruit flies are the most destructive insect pests attacking many types of fruits in Oman causing serious damage. A survey was carried out to determine which species are present, their abundance, and their host range. In addition, bagging of fruits and the presence of biological controls, as more effective and environmentally safer alternative control methods to the currently- practiced insecticide-based control methods, was investigated.
In this study, Tephritid fruit flies were surveyed using male lure (methyl eugenol) traps and by collection of host fruits over 3 years (May 2003-September 2006) in 100 sites from different regions of Oman. Six fruit fly species, Bactrocera zonata, B. Oleae, Dacus ciliatus, D. longistylus, Carpomya incompleta and C. vesuviana, were collected and identified from 54 host plants. Five species, B. zonata, B. oleae, D. ciliatus, C. vesuviana, and C. incompleta, were of economic importance. The species most common in traps was B. zonata and was the only generalist species. Fruit flies were reared from 20 out of 35 sampled commercial plant species. The two export crops (lime and dates) were not hosts for any of these fruit fly species.
Data from bagging experiment to protect 5 different mango cultivars, Zafaran, Rasfory, Totapuri, Omani and Hindi-Abosenara, from fruit fly showed that there was significant difference between bagged and unbagged fruits. The three bagging treatments significantly protected the fruits from fruit fly attacks compared to control un-bagged fruits (F= 76.09, P= 4.45E-08). The comparison among the three treatments showed that newspaper and agril were more efficient than green mesh bags.
Two parasitoids, Opius sp. and Eucoiline, were reared and identified in the study. However, their effictivness as biological control agents against remains to be investigated.
Data from this study emphasise the need for use of effective control methods and implementation of strict quarantine measures against fruit fly pests that can complicate the development of fruits and vegetables production and export industry.
