Occurrence and seasonal abundance of Fruit fly,Bactrocera zonata saunders (Diptera: Tephritidae) in relation to meteorological factors

Fruit flies belonging to the genus,bactrocera are among the major pests of fruits worldwide. among the many species of fruit flies,bacterocera zonata is a serious pest of fruits causing severe losses to the fruit production and quality,in pakistan. in the present experiment the population of b. zonata was monitored using methyl eugenol traps during the year,2015. occurrence and population dynamics of the fruit fly were compared with meteorological factors,such as temperature,relative humidity and sunshine. the highest mean population of fruit fly remained at 499 in the month of august. it started to decline afterwards and remained at 348 in the month of september. the lowest population was recorded at 26,3,2 and 1 for november,december,january and february,respectively. the optimum monthly average temperature and relative humidity ranged from 26 to 35 °c and 60%,respectively. the population of the fruit fly was positively correlated with the temperature and slightly negative correlation was seen for relative humidity. copyright 2017 zoological society of pakistan.