Vol. 10, Issue 10 (2021)

Author(s):
Dharm Beer, Umesh Chandra, Jai Kumar Yadav and Sameer Kumar Singh

Abstract:
Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) is one of the important cucurbitaceous vegetable grown in India. Among the cucurbits, it is considered a high-quality vegetable because of its nutritive value especially ascorbic acid and iron. The study was undertaken to investigate the population dynamics of Bactrocera spp. (Diptera: Tephritidae) round the year. Significant variation in occurrence of the pest was recorded during the period of investigation. First incidence of Bactrocera spp. was observed from 31^st SM and continued upto 52^nd SM in parapheromone Methyl Eugenol and Cuelure) traps. Peak incidence of the pest was recorded during 39^th SM and 42^nd SM with 135 fruit flies/trap/week. B. zonata and B. dorsalis incidence had significant positive correlation (r) of with minimum and maximum temperature (r = 0.563 and r = 0.564 respectively) during Kharif 2018. The B. cucurbitae traped had positive correlation with minimum (r = 0.752), maximum temperature (r = 0.788) and relative humidity during Kharif 2018. Findings of this study helps in understanding the population dynamics of fruits flies in bitter gourd and developing forewarning strategies to combact the pest in advance.