Sexually dimorphic morphological traits in melon fruit fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) is well recognized pest fruit fly predominantly spread in Indian subcontinent. Its two sexes can be easily identified by the presence of pointed ovipositor at the posterior abdominal tip of female and a rounded abdominal end in male. Besides this, we have identified the presence of pecten hairs on the dorsal surface of abdomen and a distinct posterior depression in the wings restricted in males only. Wings in the males also show bushy appearance of microtrichia at post anal lobe which is totally lacking in females. The number of pecten hairs showed normal distribution pattern on right and left halves of the abdomen. An analysis pertaining to the distribution of pecten hairs on both sides of abdomen revealed non-significant difference between the mean numbers of hairs of the two sides.