lifestyle. However, insect pests, diseases and various other natural and unnatural factors affect both quality and quantity of the fruits and vegetables. Amongst the insect pests, fruit flies (Tephritidiae: Diptera) are most destructive insect pests, causing Abstract | This research study reports the effect of pupal parasitoid Dirhinus giffardii on oriental fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) at various host pupae depths (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 cm) in plant debris and at different host pupae ages (24, 48, 72 and 96 h) in laboratory at 25 ± 2ºC, 60 ± 5% relative humidity and a photoperiod of DL 14:10 h. The observations indicated a significant effect of different depths of host pupae and its age on the amount of parasitism by parasitoid. Maximum significant (F = 10.78, P < 0.0001) parasitized pupae were recorded at 72 h of age at surface of the debris, while minimum number of parasitized pupae were recorded in a day old pupae at 3 cm depth. Correlation of percent pupal parasitism with depths of host pupae in plant debris, showed a negative linear trend. With increasing depth, the percentage of parasitism decreased, showing the lowest significant (F = 10.55, P < 0.0001) 38.74% pupae parasitized at 3 cm depth. Whereas, correlation of percent of pupae parasitized with the age of host pupae exhibited a positive linear trend. Older host pupae were more parasitized showing significant (F = 292.76, P < 0.0001) peak of 54.60% at 72 h of age. Since, pupal parasitoid D. giffardii mass rearing is helpfu l for decreasing oriental fruit fly population. Hence, it can be suggested that parasitoids exposed to older pupae have a greater parasitism potential. However, parasitization rate is adversely affected by the presence of plant debris.
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