author(s)
Chethan K, MK Gupta and Sushmita Thokchom

abstract
The family cucurbitaceae includes a large group of plants which are medicinally valuable. The melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae are the most serious damage to many cucurbitaceous crops. Different concentrations of Maleic Hydrazide (MH) were taken on the biology of B. cucurbitae, which showed gradual increase in the weight of pupa and the pupal duration with the increase in the concentration of MH. The adult emergence was minimum (54.55%) at 1000 ppm MH. The oviposition period was longest (15.66 days) at 10 ppm MH which gradually decreased to 2.6 days at highest concentration of MH (1000 ppm). The insect laid maximum (336 eggs/female) at 10 ppm which gradually decreased with increase in MH concentration and was minimum (15 eggs/female) at 1000 ppm MH. The minimum incubation period was 19.66 hours at 10 ppm which gradually increased to (30 hours) at 1000 ppm MH. The shortest adult longevity of insect was observed at 1000 ppm MH which was 27.00 days for male and 29.00 days for female.