Population biology and prospects for suppression of the solanaceous fruit fly, Bactrocera latifrons (Diptera: Tephritidae).

Bactrocera latifrons (Hendel) is a tephritid fruit fly native to South and Southeast Asia. First detected in Hawaii in 1983, it primarily infests fruits of solanaceous plants but has also been found to infest fruits of some species of cucurbitaceous plants in Hawaii. Because it has been known in Hawaii for a much shorter period of time than the other three introduced tephritid fruit flies of economic importance, there has been much less opportunity to study its basic biology and ecology. One area not yet sufficiently understood is the population ecology of this species. Here, we report on the population levels of B. latifrons as they relate to turkeyberry (Solanum torvum Sw) phenology in a cattle pasture with abundant turkeyberry patches in the vicinity of Haiku, Maui