{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,4]],"date-time":"2026-09-04T05:18:17Z","timestamp":1788499097948,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,2]],"date-time":"2026-09-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788307200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong","award":["2026B0202190004"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2026B0202190004"]}]},{"name":"Innovation Team Project in Modern Agricultural Industrial Technology System of Guangdong","award":["2026CXTD21"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2026CXTD21"]}]},{"name":"Science and Technology Talent and Platform Project of Yunnan","award":["202405AF140082"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["202405AF140082"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["U25A20680"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U25A20680"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["U25A20680"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U25A20680"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012166","name":"National Key Research and Development Program","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["2023YFD1401400"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023YFD1401400"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012166","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Guangdong Special Support Program-Leading Talents in Science and Technology Innovation","award":["2023TX07A017"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023TX07A017"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Insects"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The melon fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae, and the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis, are economically important tephritid pests whose sympatric distribution and overlapping host ranges precipitate intense interspecific competitive interactions. To explore the interspecific competition during larval development between these two species, we conducted a comparative study under controlled laboratory conditions. Larvae were evaluated on five host fruits\u2014pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), winter melon (Benincasa hispida), bitter gourd (Momordica charantia), and guava (Psidium guajava)\u2014across six larval density gradients (4.0, 1.33, 0.8, 0.57, 0.44, and 0.36 larvae g\u22121 of host tissue). In mixed-species treatments, Z. cucurbitae exhibited significantly higher survival rates and greater adult dry weights than B. dorsalis on all cucurbit hosts except guava, indicating a consistent competitive advantage. Under high-density conditions, mixed-species treatments displayed stronger competitive effects than single-species treatments. Survival rate and adult dry weight of both species were significantly affected by the interactive effects of host plant species and larval density, with these factors jointly determining competitive outcomes. These findings improve our understanding of interspecific competition in tephritid fruit flies and provide a scientific basis for developing more effective management strategies for these economically important pests.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/insects17090921","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,2]],"date-time":"2026-09-02T10:02:52Z","timestamp":1788343372000},"page":"921","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Resource Competition Between Melon Fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae and Oriental Fruit Fly, Bactrocera dorsalis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Hongai","family":"Su","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Entomology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"School of Preclinical Medicine, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Jin","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Entomology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Zhenyu","family":"Hao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Entomology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Haikuo","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Entomology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7664-7869","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Saleem","family":"Jaffar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Entomology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Guangwen","family":"Liang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Entomology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Ling","family":"Zeng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Entomology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2590-5781","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muhammad Asghar","family":"Hassan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Shenzhen 518000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Yongyue","family":"Lu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Entomology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"435","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev.ento.47.091201.145227","article-title":"Competitive displacement among insects and arachnids","volume":"47","author":"Reitz","year":"2001","journal-title":"Annu. 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