Abstract

In a tract like South India where the benefits of a liberal use of fruits in the daily dietary of our households has not yet been suffici- ently appreciated as in many western countries, neither the cultivation of fruit crops nor the study of the diseases and pests they are subject to has received that serious attention which such problems deserve. It is needless to add that fruit trees are as much subject to the atten- tions of insect pests as are many of our staple food and other cultivated crops and if one takes some little trouble to estimate the loss caused by insect pests to our fruit trees, it will be found proportionately as substantial as is the loss caused by pests of paddy, cotton and other field crops. Among the various insect pests attacking fruit trees those popularly known as "Fruit flies" occupy a very important status in all the fruit growing areas of the world. In this province, though we find different kinds of these fruit flies attacking various fruits and damage to crops is generally realised, we have hardly any previous records on the biological or economic aspects of South Indian fruit flies excepting a few references of a taxonomic nature. In these days of quick and easy transportation facilities between different parts of the world.

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