Impacts of the olive fruit fly on the ‘Cyprus Local’ and ‘Gemlik’ olive cultivars

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate damage rate and impact of Bactrocera oleae on olive oil quality on the ‘Cyprus Local’ and ‘Gemlik’ cultivars in Northern Cyprus. This study included 11 olive groves which were located in two different districts. A total of 11 olive groves from two separate cities (Güzelyurt and Girne) were selected during the maturity time where cvs, ‘Cyprus Local’ and ‘Gemlik’ are grown intensively. Two hundred and fifty fruits (25 fruits/10 trees) were randomly selected from each orchard and the damaged fruits were counted. These data were compared with the environmental conditions to determine relationships among the damage rates and environmental conditions.The results showed that the damage rate of olive fruit fly had a moderate correlation with the temperature, while the temperatures above 20°C were found to provoke the highest damage rate on both cultivars. Moreover, the results showed that cv. ‘Cyprus Local’ is more sensitive to olive fruit fly damage, especially at higher temperatures. An important result of the current work is that an increase in the damage rate raises the acidity ratio of the fruits and reduces the fruit quality.

Keywords

• <i>bactrocera oleae</i>
• climatic conditions
• olive oil quality
• damage rate