HOST RANGES AND INFESTATION INDICES OF FRUIT FLIES (TEPHRITIDAE) AND LANCE FLIES (LONCHAEIDAE) IN SAO PAULO STATE, BRAZIL

The knowledge of the status of the different fruit fly species and their hosts is essential to manage these insects. This work reports the associations of tephritoid fly species (Tephritidae and Lonchaeidae) with fruits collected from 67 municipalities in Sao Paulo State, Brazil. From Mar 1997 to Sep 2003, a total of 536 fruit samples was collected from 63 plant species in 28 botanical families. From overall collections, the average infestation index ranged from 0.01 to 22.98 pupae per fruit. The highest infestation was observed in Cucurbita moschata (Dusc.) Poir, followed by Mangifera indica Linnaeus and Passiflora alata Curtis, with 107.14, 59.00, and 38.50 pupae/fruit, respectively. The pupae/kg of fruit index ranged from 0.01 in Manihot esculenta Crantz to 277.91 in Citharexylum myrianthum Cham. In total 43,104 pupae and 26,368 adults of Tephritoidea were recovered from all collections. The following Tephritoidea adults were observed: Anastrepha amita Zucchi, Anastrepha bahiensis Lima, Anastrepha distincta Greene, Anastrepha. fraterculus (Wied.), Anastrepha grandis (Macquart), Anastrepha leptozona Hendel, Anastrepha obliqua (Macquart), Anastrepha pseudoparallela (Loew), Anastrepha serpentina (Wied.),Anastrepha sororcula Zucchi, Ceratitis capitata (Wied.) and Lonchaeidae. All host species infested by C capitata or Anastrepha spp. also were infested by Lonchaeidae.