Food-based attractants are an important component of tephritid fruit fly detection programs, because they are general baits that are neither sex- nor species-specific. Two widely used food baits are enzymatic hydrolyzed torula yeast, which is presented as an aqueous solution that also serves to catch insects (wet trap), and a synthetic lure that combines ammomonium acetate, putrescine, and trimethylamine and may be presented with or without a water-based catch system. Recently, the liquid attractant CeraTrap, which is an enzymatic hydrolyzed animal protein, has been shown to be equally or more effective than traditional protein baits in capturing species of Anastrepha. The present study compares capture of wild Mediterranean fruit flies, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), and melon flies, Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) in traps baited with torula yeast or CeraTrap. In addition, one sampling interval compared the catch of C. capitata in wet traps baited with torula yeast, a synthetic food lure, or CeraTrap. CeraTrap was generally more effective in capturing both sexes of C. capitata than the other food baits, while torula yeast resulted in higher captures of Z. cucurbitae than CeraTrap. Results are compared with other trapping studies of tephritids involving food-based attractants
