Ceratitis captata (Wied.) Thoracic Conformation Reared in Cashew Apple (Acardium occidentale)

Among all fruit flies species, Ceratitis capitata (Wied.) (Diptera: Tephritidae) is one of the main pest for fruits, infesting a wide range of hosts. However, there is not deep knowledge about its potential infestation and development in fruits from Caatinga (semi-arid) biome in Brazil. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the thoracic conformation of C. capitata adults (males and females) from two strains reared in cashew apple (Anacardium occidentale L.). For this, it was taken measurements from the thorax of 25 couples fed on different diets: (a) strain V8 in cashew apple; (b) wild strain in cashew apple; and (c) V8 in artificial diet. Since the damages are not normaly distributed, it was applied tests of medians differences to compare the results based on a 5% level of significance. For the adults from the two strains reared on cashew apples, the medians of thoracic measurements are higher than the males. In the adults from artificial diet, the median of the males was considerably higher than the females. Among the males, it was possible to verify the proximity of the thoracic measurements medians from the observations of the two strains reared in cashew apples. Such two strains showed lower measurements when compared to the diet reared ones. The V8 strain presented higher thoracic conformation to the tested food, showing to be more adapted to the cashew apple.