Impact of weather factor on tephritids fruit fly (Diptera: tephritidae) diversity in peach orchard and surrounding forest areas in Palampur region of North Western Himalaya

The data were collected at weekly interval on parapheromones viz., methyl eugenol and cuelure embedded traps. Population buildup of Bactrocera spp. and Dacus spp. through pheromone traps revealed the prevalence of four species of fruit flies viz., Bactrocera zonata (Saunders), Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), Dacus longicornis (Wiedemann) and Dacus spheroidalis (Bezzi) in the peach orchard. Among these, Bactrocera zonata was prevalence in the peach orchard followed by Bactrocera dorsalis. Temperature played a significant role in regulating population dynamics of most of prevailing species as indicated by a positive correlation with B. zonata whereas negative significant correlation with B. dorsalis. Relative humidity (RH) and rainfall were found negatively correlated, indicating negative impact on abundance of B. zonata fruit fly species whereas B. dorsalis showed significant positive correlation.