title: Taxonomy, Ecology, and Management of Native and Exotic Fruit Fly Species in Africa.
abstract: Horticulture is one of the most important agricultural subsectors in Africa, providing income, creating employment opportunities, and enhancing food and nutritional security. However, tephritid fruit flies are responsible for both direct and indirect losses, with alien invasive species often having the most severe ecological and economic impact. In the past 20 years, systematic analysis of tephritids has provided comparative information on taxonomy, synonymy, and character-state differentiation. New molecular techniques are now available for identifying species, reconstructing phylogenies, and studying population genetic structures. Research on biology, host range and shifts, thermotolerance, and demography has provided useful information for developing predictive and ecological niche models to guide management methods. In recent years, the responses of various species to attractants have been documented. Several suppression methods, including the release of coevolved parasitoid species targeting invasives, have been promoted within the context of integrated pest management, leading to improvement in the quality and quantity of fruits and vegetables produced. However, there is still the need for wide-scale availability of these technologies to smallholder growers across Africa.
authors.affiliation: International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya; email: sekesi@icipe.org , sfaris@icipe.org.
authors.forename: Sunday
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ekesi
authors.affiliation: Royal Museum for Central Africa, Invertebrates Unit & Joint Experimental Molecular Unit, 3080 Tervuren, Belgium; email: marc.de.meyer@africamuseum.be.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Meyer
authors.affiliation: International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya; email: sekesi@icipe.org , sfaris@icipe.org.
authors.forename: Samira A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Mohamed
authors.affiliation: Royal Museum for Central Africa, Invertebrates Unit & Joint Experimental Molecular Unit, 3080 Tervuren, Belgium; email: marc.de.meyer@africamuseum.be.|Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, 1000 Brussels, Belgium; email: massimiliano.virgilio@africamuseum.be.
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Virgilio
authors.affiliation: International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya; email: sekesi@icipe.org , sfaris@icipe.org.|Center for Development Research (Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung), University of Bonn, D-53113 Bonn, Germany; email: cb@uni-bonn.de.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Borgemeister
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D000818:Animals; D007300:Insect Control; D058865:Introduced Species; D033621:Tephritidae / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: IPM; horticulture; systematics; tephritid fruit flies