The present work was designed to investigate some biological
aspects of the peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) and the
medfly, Ceratitits capitata (Wiedmann) on two artificial diets. Two
larval diets of Awadallah, (1978) and Qureshi et. al., (1974) were
experimented for rearing both flies. Awadallah, (1978) diet was the
most preferable for rearing larvae of both fruit flies indicating by the
lowest period of immature stage durations and the highest
percentages of survival, additionally this diet is economic and
practicable for laboratory manipulation. The gradual decrease of
sugar and yeast quantities by modifying the standard diet that based
on wheat bran affected significantly the total duration period of
immature stages and total recovery percentages of B. zonata and C.
capitata. Regardless the minimum percentages of recovery that
resulting from absence of sugar, C. capitata seems to be more
tolerant for such absence. Effect of food attractant feeding on
fecundity and longevity of B. zonata adults was studied. The preoviposition period was insignificantly varied (15.80 and 14.80 days,
for flies that fed on food attractant and protein hydrolysate,
respectively). The ovipositioin period of females that fed on food
attractant lasted for 24.80 days, while those fed on protein
hydrolystae lasted in average of 32.60 days. Significant difference
was observed between the two types of feeding. The post-oviposition
periods were significantly varied which averaged 16.40 and 17.20
days for females fed on the food attractant and protein hydrolysate,
respectively. The longevity of males and females feeding on the food
attractant averaged 59.48 and 63.85 days for male and female,
respectively, and averaged 62.35 and 67.60 days for those flies
feeding on protein hydrolysate. Females that fed on food attractant
deposited 127.65 eggs/ female with a daily mean of 6.38 egg/
female/ day, while those fed on protein hydrolysate deposited 517.35
egg/ female with a daily mean of 32.33 egg/ female/ day.