C. rosa, like other Ceratitis spp., has banded wings, and a swollen scutellum which is marked yellow and black. The pattern of grey flecks in the basal wing cells distinguishes Ceratitis spp. from most other genera of tephritids.
C. rosa can be monitored by traps baited with male lures. Like Ceratitis capitata, and members of subgenera Ceratitis and Pterandrus in general, it is attracted to trimedlure and terpinyl acetate, but not methyl eugenol or cue lure. It is also very sensitive to enriched ginger oil (EGO) lure (Mwatawala et al., 2015;Manrakhan et al., 2017). The responses to baits of 16 Ceratitis species were tabulated by Hancock (1987).
Trimedlure (t-butyl 4(or 5) chloro-2-methyl cyclohexane carboxylate) is the most widely used lure for C. capitata and the following information could also be relevant for C. rosa. The history of trimedlure development and the problems of isolating the best of the eight possible isomers was discussed by Cunningham (1989). The lure is usually placed on a cottonwool wick suspended in the middle of a plastic trap that has small openings at both ends. Suitable traps were described by White and Elson-Harris (1994). Lure can either be mixed with an insecticide or a piece of paper dipped in insecticide can be placed in the trap. Traps are usually placed in fruit trees at a height of ca. 2 m above ground and should be emptied regularly as it is possible to catch hundreds of flies in a single trap left for just a few days, although the lure may remain effective for a few weeks.
A detailed study of trap position effects was carried out by Israely et al. (1997). A review of the biological aspects of male lures was presented by Cunningham (1989) and the use of lures was described more fully by Drew (1982). A trapping system used to monitor for possible introductions of C. capitata into New Zealand has been described by Somerfield (1989) and should also be effective for C. rosa. The possibility of the development of pheromone based trapping systems was discussed by Landolt and Heath (1996) and it may be possible to extend that approach to C. rosa. Trapping efficiency of C. capitata is also enhanced by the use of fluorescent colours, particularly light green (Epsky et al., 1996). This may also apply to C. rosa.
Recent comparative research on attraction sensitivity of C. rosa by using different lures, has shown that enriched ginger oil (EGO) lure is an effective attractant for C. rosa (Manrakhan et al., 2017) and can actually be a more sensitive attractant than trimedlure (Mwatawala et al., 2015).
Related invasive species
- Ceratitis rosa
Related Farm Practice
- Host plants
- Hosts
- Transport
- Analysis
C. rosa is a polyphagous African species. Its known distribution is mainly southern and eastern Africa. It is considered to be a major pest of a number of commercial fruits, including fruits that are grown in subtropical or more temperate environments (but see remark under host plants). It has similar environmental requirements to Ceratitis capitata except that it can withstand less dry conditions. It should be considered as a potential invasive species in other parts of Africa, outside its current range, and in other parts of the world (Tanga et al., 2018). The most likely pathway of dispersal and introduction is as larvae in infested fruits with commercial shipments or in the luggage of travellers. C. rosa is of quarantine significance for EPPO, JUNAC and OIRSA.
C. rosa is a polyphagous species. The list of known host plants for C. rosa as given by De Meyer et al. (2002) and at http://projects.bebif.be/fruitfly/index.html is based on records of C. rosa s.l. and thus can refer to either C. rosa, C. quilicii, or both. Detailed analysis, based on rearing experiments, is required to establish the exact host range of C. rosa. Transport of any of the host fruits could result in dispersal and distribution, if infested with fruit fly larvae.