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International Conference on

Recent Trends in Environmental Sustainability

ESCON22/SAgri/08
Parasitism potential of biological control agents of fruit fly under natural enemy field
reservoirs (NEFR) technology

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Fazlullah *, Muzammil Farooq , Sabyan Faris Honey , Naeem Zada
1 Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI), Pakistan
Correspondence: f.ullah@cabi.org
Abstract

Fruit flies belonging to family Tephritidae are major horticultural pests causing severe
economic damage to fruits and vegetables globally. Chemical pesticide application is
considered as the first line of defence against fruit fly infestation. However, the injudicious use
of insecticides caused numerous issues including resistance in target pests and deleterious
residual effects which triggered the efforts to find eco-friendly and sustainable pest
management solutions. The current study was planned to utilize two approaches i.e., sanitation
and natural enemy field revisor (NEFR) for providing a safe habitat for existing natural enemies
fauna. For this purpose, artificial sheds were constructed in the fields at district Sharaqpur
Punjab, and later infested guava fruits were collected and placed on sand in the metallic
containers placed under the artificial shed. After 9 days the pupae were collected from sand
and kept in the laboratory to record the emergence of fruit fly species and natural enemies.
The species composition data of the current study showed that Bactrocera zonata was
superabundant, while, for natural enemies, Trybliographa daci followed by Diachasmimorpha
longicaudata were dominant. The seasonal abundance of natural enemies showed the highest
level of parasitism in September while the minimum level of natural enemies’ activity was
found in November for both years. The current study provides a baseline to support sanitation
and the use of NEFR technology to conserve the natural enemies for fruit flies’ management
in Pakistan.

Key Words: Fruit fly, biological control, NEFR technology, Parasitism

Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus

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