Attraction of the Peach Fruit Fly Bactrocera zonata Adults to the Odour of Symbiotic Bacteria Isolated from Midgut

The attraction of peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) to the odour of six bacterial culture filtrates is reported. The experimental factors analyzed included sex, mating experience and feeding status of the adult flies. The mean attractancy to treatments was significantly higher over control. Protein-deprived reproductively immature and mature flies showed higher attraction compared to newly emerged flies. Protein fed flies showed similar orientation towards bacterial sources but the attraction was less than protein starved flies. The female flies had greater response to bacterial sources compared to males. Overall, a significant difference was found in the attraction between the different age groups (0–2, 6–8 and 20–30 days old) when flies were either protein fed or protein starved.