Humidity and host-plant as important factors influencing the pre-imaginal development of fruit lies (Diptera : Tephritidae) [Poster]

Fruits flies (Diptera : Tephritidae) are serious pests on fruit vegetable crops in most tropical countries. In Réunion Island, four species of Tephritidae cause damages on fruit crops, namely the Mascarenes fruit fly. #Ceratitis catoirii# (Guérin Méneville), the Mediterranean fruit fly,#C. capitata# (Wiedmann) , the Natal fruit fly, #C.rosa# karsh, and the recently invasive peach fruit fly, #Bactrocera zonata# (Saunders). If temperature has strong influence on the survivorship during the pré-impaginal development of these four species (Duyck and Quilici 2002 ; Duyck et al. 2004), the influence of humidity and host fruit has received little attention up to now.