CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background of the Study

        Terminalia catappa L. Believed to have originated in Malaysia, this tree is generally confined to mesic and wet coastal habitats and is distributed throughout the Old World tropics and tropical America (Morton, 1985). Reaching heights of 15 to 25m, T. catappa shows strong salt-, drought- and wind-tolerance and produces fruit (5-10 cm long) with a thin flesh surrounding a large fibrous nut. While the fleshy fruit is the target of larval infestation, T. catappa leaf extracts have also been shown to preferentially attract female oriental fruit flies (Chen and Dong, 2000). Clarke et al., (2001) found that T. catappa along with Psidium guajava L. constituted the major hosts for B. dorsalis in a survey of Thailand and Malaysia. In addition, T. catappa reared a particularly high number of larvae in proportion to the weight and number of fruit sampled, leading to the suggestion that it is a “primary native host” in the surveyed areas (Clarke et al., 2001). Similar disproportionately high numbers of larvae from T. catappa have been documented in Hawaii (Maehler, 1949), and these observations drew our attention to this, host. Stands of tropical almond appear to be somewhat isolated from other known hosts of oriental fruit fly, but the fruit infestation levels suggest that this tree may contain a powerful attractant for fem ale oriental fruit flies.

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