Abstract

Study on melon fruit fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae Coq. was taken up during 2007 to 2008, 2008 to 2009 and 2009 to 2010 at Central Research Farm, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, India on pointed gourd. To forewarn the fruit fly population, the data of first two years were used for the formation of predictive equation and that of last year were used for validation purpose. The maggot population was found to be having significant positive correlations with atmospheric temperature (r = 0.386 for maximun temperature and 0.501 for minimum temperature) and soil temperature (r = 0.555). This study also revealed significant negative relation (r = -0.451) with morning RH but it had no significant positive relation (r = +0.284) with evening RH. Rainfall could not influence the population of this internal feeding maggot. The maggot population showed almost neutral relationship with bright sun shine hours (r = +0.103). While fitting the predictive model the maggot population was slightly under predicted. The root mean square error value was found to be 4.45, indicating the developed equation can well be used to predict the maggot population in pointed gourd.

Key words:  Pointed gourd, fruit fly, maggot population, correlation, predictive model.