Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society (2003) 36, 39-46

Charles G. Jackson, Roger I. Vargas and David Y. Suda (2003)
Populations of Bactrocera cucurbitae (Diptera: Tephritidae) and its parasitoid, Psyttalia fletcheri (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), in Coccinia grandis (Cucurbitaceae), or ivy gourd, on the Island of Hawaii
Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society 36, 39-46
Abstract: The melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett), readily lays eggs and develops in ivy or scarlet-fruited gourd, Coccinia grandis (L.). This plant has become naturalized in Hawaii where it is considered a noxious weed. We sampled C. grandis over a two-year period from several locations in the Kona region of Hawaii. In 1993 and 1994, average numbers of 500 to more than 800 adult melon flies per kg of fruit were recovered indicating that C. grandis is an important contributor to this pest's population. Natural parasitism of melon flies by the introduced braconid wasp, Psyttalia fletcheri (Silvestri), averaged 5.5 % during the two-year study. Less than 1.0% of the fruit was infested by the oriental fruit fly, B. dorsalis (Hendel), and the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Weidemann).
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Database assignments for author(s): Roger I. Vargas

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
environment - cropping system/rotation
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
environment/habitat manipulation

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Ceratitis capitata		U.S.A. (Hawaii)
	Zeugodacus cucurbitae		U.S.A. (Hawaii)
	Coccinia grandis (weed)		U.S.A. (Hawaii)
Psyttalia fletcheri (parasitoid)	Zeugodacus cucurbitae	Coccinia (crop)	U.S.A. (Hawaii)