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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Hilo, Hawaii » Daniel K. Inouye U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center » Tropical Crop and Commodity Protection Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #310478
Title: Melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Diptera: Tephritidae), infestation in host fruits in the Southwestern Islands of Japan before the initiation of Island-wide population suppression

Author
item McQuate, Grant
item TERUYA, TADASHI - Okinawa Prefectural Institute

Submitted to: International Journal of Insect Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/13/2015
Publication Date: 6/7/2015
Citation: McQuate, G.T., Teruya, T. 2015. Melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Diptera: Tephritidae), infestation in host fruits in the Southwestern Islands of Japan before the initiation of Island-wide population suppression. International Journal of Insect Science. (7):27-37.DOI:10.4137/IJIS.S24582.

Interpretive Summary: Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) is a tephritid fruit fly native to the Indo-Malayan region (South, Southeast and parts of East Asia). It's distribution, though, has extended to include Africa, temperate Asia, and a number of Pacific islands. It became established in Japan in 1919 in the Yaeyama Islands and spread north in the Southwestern Islands of Japan. It was subsequently eradicated from these islands by an eradication program that extended from 1972 – 1993. Overall, this eradication program is one of the highlights in the history of melon fly control. Over the course of this successful program, many fruits were collected and held for the assessment of infestation by melon fly. The infestation data were published in a number of in-country reports, all written in Japanese, which have not been readily accessible by people outside of Japan. As part of an effort to develop a worldwide database on the status of fruits as hosts of melon fly, we summarize here the infestation data gathered from host fruits collected before the initiation of suppression activities (bait sprays, male annihilation and sterile fly releases). This summarization is of particular value because of the quantity of data collected and the fact that there is no longer any infestation of these fruits in Japan, so this manuscript provides historical documentation of melon fly hosts in Japan. This summarization will be of value should melon fly ever become re-established on any of the Southwestern Islands of Japan, for use in pest risk assessments, and in contributing to our overall understanding of the host range of the melon fly. Bactrocera cucurbitae infestation was documented in 24 plant taxa of four plant families (Caricaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Moraceae and Solanaceae), with the following four new hosts identified: Ficus erecta Thunb., F. pumila L. (Moraceae), Solanum erianthum D. Don (Solanaceae), and Zehneria liukiuensis (Cucurbitaceae).

Technical Abstract: Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) is a tephritid fruit fly native to the Indo-Malayan region. Its distribution, though, has extended to include Africa, temperate Asia, and a number of Pacific islands. It became established in Japan in 1919 in the Yaeyama Islands and spread north in the Southwestern Islands of Japan. It was subsequently eradicated from these islands by an eradication program that extended from 1972 – 1993. As part of an effort to develop a worldwide database on the status of fruits as hosts of melon fly, the infestation data gathered from host fruits collected in this eradication program, before the initiation of suppression activities, are summarized here. Bactrocera cucurbitae infestation was documented in 24 plant taxa of four plant families (Caricaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Moraceae and Solanaceae), with the following four new hosts identified: Ficus erecta Thunb., F. pumila L. (Moraceae), Solanum erianthum D. Don (Solanaceae), and Zehneria liukiuensis (Cucurbitaceae).