Assessment of fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae) infestation levels on three different fruit varieties in Alexandria Governorate, Egypt

Abstract

The Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae) is the most important insect pest of fruits. Indicated that adult females lay their eggs under the skin of the fruit and hatch into larvae that feed on the fruit flesh. Infested fruits rapidly rot and become inedible or fall on the ground, which causes serious damage in production. This study aimed to evaluate the infestation levels of three different fruit varieties mango, pomegranate, and navel orange by C. capitata insect at Alexandria Governorate during seasons 2021 and 2022. The levels of infestation with the Mediterranean fruit fly (MFF), C. capitata on three different fruit varieties, mango, pomegranate, and navel orange were studied at Borg El-Arab, Alexandria Governorate during two successive seasons (2021 and 2022). Results obtained indicated that the levels of infestation by C. capitata were significant in both seasons in the three different varieties, where the variance of ratio was (97.9 - 97.6%), for mango, (97.3 - 98.1%) for pomegranate with no differences between the mango and pomegranate where recorded (96.4 – 94.5%) for navel orange for two successive seasons, respectively. The relation between the average numbers of dropping fruits, infested dropping, and percentages of infestation for the three different fruit varieties, mango, pomegranate, and navel orange for two successive seasons 2021 and 2022 were (81.3-87.1%) for mango, (81.6-73.5%) for pomegranate and (92.8-85.4%) for navel orange. Statistical analysis showed that the simple correlation of % infestation dropping fruits of mango and max. and min. temperatures were highly significant whereas (r = 0.1931 & 0.4955) for max. & min. the temperature in the first season of 2021, respectively. Relative humidity was negatively significant, (r = - 0.1919). While in pomegranate was no significant with max., the mini. temperatures were (r = 0.7411, 0.5493) while being negative and significant with relative humidity were (- 0.6297). In navel orange max. the temperature was significant (r= 0.0690), mini. the temperature was highly significant (r = 0.1567). While relative humidity was negative and insignificant (r = - 0.5662) for the first season, 2021. The second season, 2022, follows the same trend. Regarding the percentages of infestation during two successive years, navel orange recorded the highest infestation percentage (92.6% - 85%), then (81.7% - 87.1%) for mango and (80.6%-71.8%) for pomegranate .