The present work was designed to investigate some biological aspects of the peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) and the medfly, Ceratitits capitata (Wiedmann) on two artificial diets. Two larval diets of Awadallah, (1978) and Qureshi et. al., (1974) were experimented for rearing both flies. Awadallah, (1978) diet was the most preferable for rearing larvae of both fruit flies indicating by the lowest period of immature stage durations and the highest percentages of survival, additionally this diet is economic and practicable for laboratory manipulation. The gradual decrease of sugar and yeast quantities by modifying the standard diet that based on wheat bran affected significantly the total duration period of immature stages and total recovery percentages of B. zonata and C. capitata. Regardless the minimum percentages of recovery that resulting from absence of sugar, C. capitata seems to be more tolerant for such absence. Effect of food attractant feeding on fecundity and longevity of B. zonata adults was studied. The preoviposition period was insignificantly varied (15.80 and 14.80 days, for flies that fed on food attractant and protein hydrolysate, respectively). The ovipositioin period of females that fed on food attractant lasted for 24.80 days, while those fed on protein hydrolystae lasted in average of 32.60 days. Significant difference was observed between the two types of feeding. The post-oviposition periods were significantly varied which averaged 16.40 and 17.20 days for females fed on the food attractant and protein hydrolysate, respectively. The longevity of males and females feeding on the food attractant averaged 59.48 and 63.85 days for male and female, respectively, and averaged 62.35 and 67.60 days for those flies feeding on protein hydrolysate. Females that fed on food attractant deposited 127.65 eggs/ female with a daily mean of 6.38 egg/ female/ day, while those fed on protein hydrolysate deposited 517.35 egg/ female with a daily mean of 32.33 egg/ female/ day. Key words : Tephritidae -fruit fly -Bactrocera zonata -Ceratitits capitata --artificial diet -biology.
INTRODUCTIONThe family Tephritidae, the true fruit flies, includes about 4000 species arranged in 500 genera (White & Elson-Harris 1994). The Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitits capitata (Wiedemann) and the peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) are the most tephritids that inflicts significantly economic losses to peach, apricot, guava, mango, fig and citrus allover the governorates of Egypt. Many larval diets were used for rearing tepherids, in Egypt, Awadalla, (1978) reported a larval diet based on wheat bran for rearing C. capitata, the diet ingredients were locally available. Also, Quershi et. al., (1974) reported a larval diet based on wheat shorts for rearing B. zonata .
