New Country Records and Annotated Checklist of the Dacine Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae: Dacini) of Nepal

Abstract

Preliminary surveys for Dacine fruit flies were carried out in May 2015 and June 2017, with male lure (cue-lure, methyl eugenol, zingerone) traps maintained at 55 sites, (110–1,780 m elevation range), comprised mostly of Nepal Agricultural Research Council research stations. Twenty species were collected, including 11 new country occurrence and 2 new male lure association records. The most common species were fruit pests Bactrocera dorsalis (60.4% of all captures) and B. zonata (15.2%), and cucurbit pests Zeugodacus tau (9.5%) and Z. cucurbitae (8.7%). We present an annotated checklist of the 26 species now known to occur in Nepal, including 5 fruit and 6 cucurbit pests.