Species Diversity and Relative Abundance of Fruit Flies in Three Important Cucurbit Crops in Medziphema, Nagaland

Author: Huirem Diana Devi, Pankaj Neog, Arensungla Pongen, K. Lalruatsangi, Martha Chakruno and Hijam Shila Devi

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Abstract

Fruit flies are among the most common insects that eat vegetables (Diptera: Tephritidae). To finish their development, their larvae consume the pulp or seeds of fruits, which encourages the entry of infections and an early fall of the fruits, harming fruit yield. The purpose of this study was to identify the diversity of fruit fly species associated with cucurbit crops in Medziphema, Nagaland. To study theirdiversity, three different cucurbitaceous crops viz., cucumber, pumpkin and ash gourd were grown in three different isolated farms. Methyl eugenol, cue lure and banana poison bait were used in different plastic bottle traps to attract and catch different species fruit flies to determine diversity and relative abundance. The fruit flies species recorded from different cucurbitaceous crops were Bactrocera dorsalis, Zeugodacus tau, Bactrocera tuberculata, Zeugodacus cucurbitae and Bactrocera ruiliensis (Diptera: Tephritidae). B. dorsalis was the most abundant species in all the cucurbit crops. The Shannon-Weiner diversity index (H’), Simpson diversity index (SDI) and evenness of species (EH) computed for fruit flies in three different cucurbit fields revealed that the H’ value was highest in ash gourd (1.29), while SDI value was recorded highest in cucumber (0.397) andEH value was in the range of 0.736 to 0.799 in the three cucurbits.

Keywords

Cucurbits, Fruit flies, Diversity, Methyl eugenol, Cue lure

Conclusion

B. dorsalis was the most dominant fruit fly species among the different species of fruit flies, with the highest relative abundance percentage in all the three cucurbit crops of Medziphema area of Nagaland. The diversity of fruit flies was relatively low in all the cucurbit fields. However, they were distributed evenly as the value of evenness of species (EH) was found high in all the cucurbit fields.

References

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How to cite this article

Huirem Diana Devi, Pankaj Neog, Arensungla Pongen, K. Lalruatsangi, Martha Chakruno and Hijam Shila Devi (2023). Species Diversity and Relative Abundance of Fruit Flies in Three Important Cucurbit Crops in Medziphema, Nagaland. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(4): 64-69.