Does fruit phenology influence trap-capture and emergence of Ceratitis capitata and Bactrocera zonata in commercial hosts?

Résumé

Introduction – Mediterranean fruit fly (MFF), Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) and peach fruit fly (PFF), Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) are two economically important pests of horticultural crops in Egypt. Fruit development has an essential role in understanding the appearance and population dynamics of these pests. The study’s objective was to relate the fruit-phenology of plum, apple, mango, and navel orange, four economic hosts in Egypt, on trap-capture of MFF and PFF females and insects’ emergence from fruits. Materials and methods – Plastic bottle traps baited with ammonium acetate were distributed on each fruit orchard, approximately one trap per 0.2 ha. Weekly trap inspections, simultaneously with fruit sample collection, provided the number of females captured and insects emerging from fruits collected at three different phenological stages. Results and discussion – Fruit phenology ruled female captures in baited traps and emergence of flies. Females were trapped in higher numbers in the experimental orchards during the ripening, and turning-ripe stages than on the green stage, with small numbers or no PFF-flies captured in apple trees with “green” fruits. Except for a few MFF adults emerging from mango in the turning-ripe stage, no adults emerged from “green” fruits in both years for PFF. MFF and PFF adults’ emergence was more abundant in ripening than in turning-ripe fruits, except for navel orange, where no differences were observed. Also, no PFF emergence was observed in turning-ripe-plums. Conclusion – This study provides the baseline on PFF and MFF females’ periodically appearance in the field and their relation to host phenology under Egyptian agro-ecosystems, information used to forecast control actions in these fruit orchards.