The Ontological Modelling of Fruit Fly Control and Management Knowledge

AbstractThe Artocarpus fruit fly, Bactrocera umbrosa (Fabricius) (Diptera: Tephritidae), is an oligophagous fruit pest infesting Moraceae fruits, including jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lamarck), a fruit commodity of high value in Malaysia. The scarcity of fundamental biological, physiological and ecological information on this pest, particularly in relation to behavioural response to phytochemical lures, which are instrumental to the success of many area-wide fruit fly control and management programmes, underpins the need for studies on this much-underrated pest. The positive response of B. umbrosa males to methyl eugenol (ME), a highly potent phytochemical lure, which attracts mainly males of many Bactrocera species, was shown to increase with increasing age. As early as 7 days after emergence (DAE), ca. 22% of males had responded to ME and over 50% by 10 DAE, despite no occurrence of matings (i.e. the males were still sexually immature). Male attraction to ME peaked from 10 to 27 DAE, which corresponded with the flies’ attainment of sexual maturity. In wind-tunnel assays during the dusk courtship period, ME-fed males exhibited earlier calling activity and attracted a significantly higher percentage of virgin females compared with ME-deprived males. ME-fed males enjoyed a higher mating success than ME-deprived males at 1-day post ME feeding in semi-field assays. ME consumption also promotes aggregation behaviour in B. umbrosa males, as demonstrated in wind-tunnel and semi-field assays. We suggest that ME plays a prominent role in promoting sexual communication and enhancing mating performance of the Artocarpus fruit fly, a finding that is congruent with previous reports on the consequences of ME acquisition by other economically important Bactrocera species.

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Guava (Psidium guajava L.) Fruit Coating with Gum – Arabic for Quality and Fruit Fly Control

Journal of Experimental Sciences ◽

10.25081/jes.2018.v9.3439 ◽

1970 ◽

pp. 01-04

Author(s):

Esameldin B. M. Kabbashi, Ghada H. Abdelrahman and Nawal A. Abdlerahman

Keyword(s):

Shelf Life ◽

Gum Arabic ◽

Fruit Fly ◽

Psidium Guajava ◽

Postharvest Quality ◽

Guava Fruit ◽

Fruit Shelf Life ◽

Fly Control ◽

And Control ◽

Subtropical Fruit

Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is a lovely tropical and subtropical fruit that originates in Mexico, Central America, and then taken to other distant and near parts around the world. In Sudan this popular fruit is produced in orchards and household and is so profitable but yet attacked by a lot of fruit fly species of the Genera Ceratitis and Bactrocera and the result is a loss of more than 70%. This research aimed at evaluating the effect of Gum Arabic coating (GAC) in extending the shelf life of guava fruit and disinfesting it from these notorious pests. Guava fruits from Kadaro orchards, Khartoum North, were tested using seven concentrations of Gum Arabic solutions. The results reflect that 1: 4 (25%) and 1: 8 (12.5%) (GA: water) concentrations attained 56 and 40% disinfestation, respectively whereas the other lower concentrations effected corresponding results in a range from 20 – 08%. The reduction in maggots per test fruit reached upto 188% as compared to the control. The highest concentrations (1: 4 & 1: 8) effected a sustainability of 52% in fruit firmness (FF) with an average of medium (3) FF compared to soft FF (4) in the control. The corresponding results in other lower concentrations (1: 16; 1: 32; 1: 64; 1: 72 & 1: 96) were 36, 24, 24, 20 and 16%, respectively. In addition to an average FF of 4 (soft) for all these concentrations and 5 (very soft) for all the corresponding controls. Nevertheless, the sustainability of fruit color (FC) effected by the test concentrations was 52, 44, 24, 22, 24, 20, and 24%, respectively. Regarding these results, the two highest test concentrations effected a sizeable disinfestation and control of fruit flies and a good extension of shelf life of guava in Khartoum State. These findings support using this treatment as an effective IPM tool to extend guava fruit shelf life and upgrading its postharvest quality.

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Establishing criteria for the management of tephritid fruit fly outbreaks

CABI Agriculture and Bioscience ◽

10.1186/s43170-021-00043-w ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Michael D. Ormsby

Keyword(s):

Cost Benefit ◽

Fruit Fly ◽

Economic Benefits ◽

Fruit Flies ◽

International Standards ◽

Trade Restrictions ◽

Export Restriction ◽

Fly Control ◽

Financial Impacts ◽

Tephritid Fruit Flies

AbstractTephritid fruit flies (Diptera; Tephritidae) represent a group of insects that include some of the most economically important pests in horticulture. Because of their economic importance, the financial impacts of an incursion of tephritid fruit flies into a new area can often result in restrictions to trade. The economic impacts of any trade restrictions imposed by importing countries are confounded by the current absence of consistent and accepted criteria for the strength and extent of any trade restrictions and declaring the end of an incursion. The author has developed models that can be used to establish criteria for the management of tephritid fruit fly outbreaks as outlined in international standards. A model enables criteria on when to recognise an incursion has occurred and establish export restrictions. Another model determines what area or radius an export restriction zone (ERZ) should cover. And a third model establishes criteria for the conditions required to enable an ERZ to be rescinded and the area’s pest free status reinstated. The models rely primarily on fruit fly biology and the effectiveness of surveillance trapping systems. The adoption of these proposed criteria internationally for establishing a control system and responding to fruit fly outbreaks would provide considerable economic benefits to international trade. Additionally, these criteria would enable countries to make more informed cost–benefit decisions on the level of investment in fruit fly control systems that better reflects the economic risks fruit flies represent to their economy.

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Parental RNAi Silencing of the transformer-2 Gene in a Species of the Anastrepha fraterculus Complex of Cryptic Species (Diptera, Tephritidae)

Journal of Agricultural Science ◽

10.5539/jas.v13n10p70 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (10) ◽

pp. 70

Author(s):

Pietro E. Vicari ◽

Esther S. Chang ◽

André L. P. Perondini ◽

Denise Selivon

Keyword(s):

Mating Behavior ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Fruit Fly ◽

Regulatory Function ◽

Rnai Silencing ◽

Sustainable Technologies ◽

Xx Males ◽

Fly Control ◽

Tephritid Fruit Flies

In genera Anastrepha, Bactrocera and Ceratitis of the tephritid fruit flies the auto-regulatory function of gene transformer is assumed to be activated by maternal derived mRNA or the proteins of the gene transformer (tra-2 mat) and transformer-2 (tra-2mat). However, this maternal effect was not yet been demonstrated. The objective of the present study was to test the effect of absence of tra-2mat in the eggs on the sex determination of A. sp.1 affinis fraterculus. This was achieved by silencing gene tra-2 in the parental females via the pRNA interference. The data showed that tra-2 was transiently silenced in the female for three weeks period. The progenies sex ratio produced by these females during the silencing of tra-2 depart from 1:1 in favor of males. The excess of males was due to the transformation of a fraction of genotypical female XX embryos into XX males, the so-called pseudomales, Individual F1 males from the offspring of treated females crossed to females from the stock, revealed that majority of them showed regular mating behavior and were fertile. However, no offspring was produced in the crosses by a fraction of males that have produced sperms, showed regular mating behavior but did not transfer sperms to the females. The data allow the conclusion that the absence of tra-2mat in the eggs had impaired the self-regulation of the embryonic gene tra resulting in the transformation of XX embryos into pseudomales and also that these pseudomales are sterile. This effect may be useful improve more sustainable technologies for fruit fly control such as SIT.

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