Biodiversity of fruit flies (Diptera, Tephritidae) in Mozambique

Abstract

Surveys of fruit fly species, especially the family Tephritidae, their host plants and parasitoids are key to a better understanding of the bio-ecology of these insect groups, given its economic importance to the fruit in the world. There is a tendency for these studies to become even more important because we need to know routinely whether a particular species occurs in a given country and on which hosts. The project aimed to know the general ecology of fruit flies as a contribution to the understanding of fruit fly population dynamics in Mozambique for the development of integrated management strategies and reduction of economic losses in fruit production. A list is presented of 59 fruit fly species belonging to 27 genera included in four subfamilies for Mozambique. Subfamily Dacinae had the largest number of species (61.0%). The genus with most species in the country is Dacus corresponding to 32.2% (19 species) of the total, followed by Ceratitis (9 species) with 15.2%, other genera had fewer species. Six species represent new records for Mozambique: Ceratitis punctata, Ceratitis quinaria, Dacus chiwira, Dacus ciliatus, Dacus pallidilatus and Dacus vertebratus.