BIOLOGICAL STUDIES ON THE AFRICAN FIG FLY, ZAPRIONUS INDIANUS GUPTA (DIPTERA: DROSOPHILIDAE)

The African fig fly, Zaprionus indianus Gupta, is a widely distributed polyphagous drosophilid fly of tropical origin. Its occurrence in Jordan was first reported on date palms from the Central Jordan Valley in June 2012. Studies on biological aspects of a fly population collected from Northern Jordan Valley were carried out under laboratory conditions at 25±1˚C, 75±10% RH, and 14 h photoperiod. Mashed banana fruits with dry active yeast of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were used for the first time as a diet for larval and adult stages. The data obtained showed that the average mating period was 2.5 days, the pre-oviposition period 2.7 days, the oviposition period 42. 7 days, incubation period 24.5 h, hatching of eggs was 91.7%, duration of larval stage 7.4 days, pupal stage 6.8 days, adult male life span 42.2 days, adult female life span was 37.7 days. The larval stage had the highest mortality followed by the pupal stage and then the egg stage. The life cycle lasted 13.9 to 23.2 days with an average of 17.9 days. Emerged adult flies showed a sex ratio of 1.0. The obtained results provided basic data that may help in the management of this pest in Jordan.