Myiopardalis pardalina is especially a pest of melons, which regularly causes significant crop losses. This pest is included in EPPO Alert List, because it may be a threat to melon crops in the EPPO region, in particular in Southern Europe and North Africa.
The Baluchistan melon fly Myiopardalis pardalina Bigot, also called the Russian melon fly (Diptera: Tephritidae), is relatively new organism occurring in Cucurbitaceae crops in Kazakhstan. This pest is widely distributed in temperate, tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world including southeast Asia, India, China, Japan and Nepal, the Middle East, Africa and several Pacific islands. This pest can attack flowers as well as fruit and will additionally attack even its stem and root. Heavy attacks may occur even before the fruit has set, with eggs laid into unopened male and female flowers, and larvae may even develop in the stems and leaf stalk.
In Kazakhstan, Cucurbitaceae are the leading crops grown on an area of over 80 thousand ha with (70%) concentrated in the south parts of Kazakhstan. Most melons are exported to Europe and Russia. Due to the Cucurbitaceae economic importance and sensitivity to diseases and pests, scientists are trying to create new varieties of melon which are resistant to diseases and pests under the conditions in south Kazakhstan.
Scientists of Kazakh Research Institute of Plant Protection and Quarantine at Almaty with the University of Technology at Białystok (Poland) have investigated the cycle of the pest’s development and evaluated the efficacy of insecticides from the pyrethroid, organophosphate and neonicotinoids groups in controlling Myiopardalis pardalina in melon plantations under the conditions of Southeast Asia.
For the study, three kinds of traps were tested (pheromone, stick and feeding) for monitoring quarantine flies. The application of thiamethoxam/cyhalothrin (A) and chlorpyrifos/cypermethrin (B) in variant A, B, A at dose 0.2, 0.5, 0.2 l/ha was more effective than threefold applications of chlorpyrifos/cypermethrin in variant B, B, B at dose 0.7, 0.7, 0.7 l/ha during the growing season. Among all traps used, the lowest degree of melon damage (8.8%) was observed only for the variant with 10 pheromone traps per hectare, where the crop yield of melon was slightly higher than in the case of the other traps (16.63 t/ha).
Th scientists conclude that the combination A, B, A improved the quality of fruit, decreased melon infestation with ovipositor marks and significantly reduced fly populations for up to 14 days. Only chlorpyrifos residues were determined in melon after harvesting at an acceptable level.
The image is from www.sorhocam.com
Source: Bayan Toyzhigitova, Saparbek Yskak, Bożena Łozowicka, Piotr Kaczyński, Almat Dinasilov, Rsaldy Zhunisbay, Elżbieta Wołejko, 'Biological and chemical protection of melon crops against Myiopardalis pardalina Bigot', 28 May 2019, Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection.