Mediterranean fruit fly Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Mediterranean fruit fly - Assignment Example Most countries which have been infested have had both successful and unsuccessful eradication programs. New Zealand too has a Biosecurity system which renders protection against such invasions and has been so far successful in keeping the country free from these pests. The main aim of this paper is to understand what the Biosecurity system and policies of the country are effective at during incursion responses and suggest ways in which such responses can be strengthened to ensure better protection against bioinvasions of the Mediterranean fruit flies. There are various kinds of fruit flies found in different regions of the world. The ones belonging to family Tephritidae are considered the true fruit flies. The most important members of the family are the Bactrocera sp and the Ceratitis sp. The Mediterranean fruit fly is binomially known as Ceratitis capitata and ranks among the top most destructive agricultural pests. Its origins lie in tropical Africa but today it is found around the world and is not only highly destructive but is highly invasive as well (Huang et al,2009,p1239). The med fruit fly can be easily distinguished from any other fruit flies because of its characteristics. An adult fly is slightly smaller when compared to an adult common housefly. An adult fly measures about 3-5 mm. The body is straw yellow in color with brownish tinge. The thorax is off-white in color. It bears some marks on the wings but the most prominent one the presence of a broad yellow band across the middle portion of the wings. It also has ocellar bristles (bristles present on the dorsal part of the head) and its eyes are purplish in color. The adult male flies can be segregated from the female flies because the presence of a long pointed expansion on the top of the orbital setae (present between ocelli and eyes) (IFAS,2010). The life history activity of Medfly is dependent on temperature and it completes its life cycle under optimum conditions of temperature. The