Acoustical Detection of Oriental Fruit Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) Larvae in Papaya

Abstract

Ultrasensitive sound detection equipment was evaluated for identifying larvae of the oriental fruit fly, Dacus dorsalis Hendel (Diptera: Tephritidae), in papaya (Carica papaya L.). In each of the eight laboratory tests, 25 fruit were artificially infested at a rate of 20 eggs per fruit; another 25 fruit were used as controls. After larval eclosion, each fruit was examined daily for 2 min using a computer program developed to recognize larval feeding. Accuracy in detecting infested fruit approached 100% 5 d after fruit infestation. The system correctly identified control fruit ca. 85% of the time until the sixth day, when tissue deterioration also produced signals. Factors causing false positives and problems with implementing the system in the laboratory are discussed.

Insecta, larval detection, quarantine, papaya