Threats to fruit and vegetable crops: Fruit flies (Tephritidae) - ecology, behaviour, and management

Approximately 4,000 known/described species of fruit flies (Tephritidae) are distributed in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions of world, out of which 200 species are economically important and damaging/spoiling not only to fruits but also to a number of vegetable crops. Despite their tremendous importance, a limited amount of information is available on the ecology and behaviour of fruit flies especially when compared to fruit fly species complex. It is necessary to understand the ecology and behaviour before the formulation of management strategy. The present review may serves as a baseline data for scientists engaged in fruit fly management programs. Key themes include: (1) demography and population dynamics and, (2) behaviour (e.g. sexual, mating, oviposition, and feeding). The excess of literature on monitoring and management of fruit flies are available, which includes male sterilization and annihilation, mass trapping, chemical baits, mating disruption, and biological control. But few of them are easily adopted by users and give satisfactory control of fruit flies and rest are not easily adopted or if used does not give effective control, because of the lack of knowledge about the ecology and behaviour of fruit flies. If the information on population dynamics, behavior, and the related ecological factors are not jointly gathered, it is almost impossible to carry out an appropriate pest control at the right time and place. We hope that this synthesis will lay the groundwork for future ecological and behavioural studies of fruit fly species, populations, communities, and control.