Diversity of fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) from the South African highveld and lowveld : a preliminary assessment of Wolbachia infection

Abstract

Food security, as far as horticultural production is concerned, requires research into pest control methods at all stages of production. Tephritid fruit flies are among the most serious agricultural pests worldwide, owing to damage caused to vegetables and fruit through female oviposition, and larval development in the fruit, stems and seeds of the host plant. As a result of the large cost of pest management programmes, research into efficient and environmentally benign pest control strategies are always required. One such pest management strategy is the implementation of the Wolbachia-mediated incompatible insect technique (IIT). This relies on the genetic manipulation commonly referred to as cytoplasmic incompatibility. In order to do this an understanding of the host in needed and the confirmation of a positive infection. We collected a totel of 2198 fruit flies from our highveld and lowveld sampling sites. These fruit flies were identified as belonging to nine species which clear separation as some species are only found in one of the sampling locations. We screened 616 fruit flies from the Mooinooi sampling location for the presence of Wolbachia, there was a positive detection in one male Ceratitis cosyra fruit fly.