Manoj Kumar MahlaAJAY TANWAR2024-10-012024-10-012024Tanwar A. and Mahla M. K.https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810215253The present investigation entitled “Diversity of Fruit flies and its Management in the Horticulture Ecosystem of Udaipur District of Southern Rajasthan” was conducted horticulture farm and under laboratory conditions in the Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur during June to September, 2023. Studies were carried out to identified and determined the species diversity of fruit flies and pheromone lure longevity was evaluated in available horticulture crops at horticulture farm, Udaipur with 8 treatments from 26th to 37th SMW. Initially all the traps were loaded with methyl eugenol lure, later the lure was changed from the traps at 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 days interval. The number of fruit fly catches were highest in T1 i.e when the lure was changed at 30 days interval followed by lure was changed at 35 days interval against the without traps i.e., T8 (Control). Three species of fruit flies viz., Bactrocera correcta, B. invadens and B. zonata were identified. B. correcta was found to be the dominant species with maximum mean density, maximum relative density and minimum Simpson index (D). The weather parameters were correlated with number of fruit fly catches and age of the lure it was found that there was positive correlation with maximum and minimum temperature. The morning relative humidity exhibited strong significant positive correlation with lure changed at 30 days interval. When lure was changed at 50, 55 and 60 days exhibited significant negative correlation with wind velocity. The other meteorological variables differed non significantly with methyl eugenol trap catches. The six different pheromone traps, including trap with no lure (control), viz., methyl eugenol trap, apple cider vinegar trap, wine bottle trap, trimedlure trap and 9 tricosine trap were evaluated in guava field for trapping of both the sexes of fruit flies. The result of the present investigation showed that the male fruit flies were captured maximum (90.02 fruit flies/ trap/week) in methyl eugenol trap. The 9 tricosine lure trap (68.08 flies/trap/week) and trimedlure (61.38 flies/trap/week) were the next effective. The least effective trap was wine bottle and apple cider vinegar trap (40.10 and 47.27 male flies/trap/week). The female fruit flies were highly attracted to the apple cidar vinegar and trimedlure trap with the fruit fly catches of 23.31 and 22.48 fruit flies/ trap/week. The wine bottle trap (5.31 female flies/trap/week) and methyl eugenol trap (5.69 female flies/trap/week) was found to be least effective. On comparing the overall pheromone trapping efficiency, methyl eugenol trap (27.96 %) was found to be effective in trapping of fruit flies. It was followed by 9 tricosine lure and trimedlure. The minimum relative efficiency was recorded in the wine bottle trap followed by apple cidar vinegar trap. The trapped catches of fruit fly had significant and negative correlation with maximum temperature while, morning relative humidity showed significant and positive correlation regardless of the evaluated all pheromones. An estimation of avoidable losses caused by fruit fly showed that the mean fruit damage on number basis was 15.34 per cent, while in unprotected plots it was 43.99 per cent. Similarly, the mean fruit damage on weight basis was 14.30 per cent in protected plots, while it was 42.04 per cent in unprotected plots. The average marketable yield of protected trees was 48.11 kg/tree while the average marketable fruit yield of unprotected trees was 27.79/tree kg. Consequently, the actual avoidable loss calculated on the basis of difference in yield from protected and unprotected plots in guava season 2023, with 42.24 per cent loss in marketable yield. The average marketable fruit yield /tree was 1.73 times higher when the plants was protected.EnglishThesis