Diversity and indices of infestation of fruit flies and their parasitoids in six coffee cultivars in the city of Bom Jesus of Itabapoana, RJ

Abstract

This study focuses one of the most important pests of world fruit crop: the fruit flies, however, there are few studies concerned with their association with coffee fruit. This study was carried out in the municipality of Bom Jesus do Itabapoana, in the Northwest Region of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, aiming at determining the species which occur in the coffee plantations of this region, their natural infestation indices and the natural parasitism of these species. Mature fruits of six cultivars of Arabic coffee (‘Acauã’ ‘Catuaí Amarelo’, ‘Catuaí Vermelho’, ‘Catuaí 785’, ‘Mundo Novo’e ‘2SL Vermelho’) were collected. All cultivars evaluated were infested by fruit flies, which were associated with only one species of parasitoid in each cultivar. A total of 1,749 puparia were obtained and from which emerged 460 adults, being 441 specimens of fruit flies and 19 parasitoids. Four species of fruit flies were obtained: Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedemman, 1830), Anastrepha sororcula (Zucchi, 1979), Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann, 1824), (Tephritidae) and Neosilba pendula Bezzi, 1919 (Lonchaeidae). The mean natural infestation index of the coffee fruits by fruit flies was of 291.5 puparia/kg and 0.4 puparia/fruit. There was a predominance of A. fraterculus over C. capitata, which was more frequent only in ‘Catuaí Vermelho’ and ‘Catuaí 785’. All parasitoids belong to the family Braconidae [Asobara sp., Opius bellus (Gahan, 1930) and Doryctobrachon areolatus (Szépligeti, 1911)], which were responsible for a very low level of natural parasitism (1.1%).

Keywords

• Coffea Arabica. Coffee crop. Tephritid. Lonchaeid. Braconid.