Fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritoidea) infestation in citrus in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil

From February 1998 to May 2000, fruits of different citrus varieties and hybrids were collected in order to assess the fruit fly infestation levels and tephritoid/parasitoid complex in the state of Sao Paulo. A total of 12,239 fruits (1,416.93 kg) was collected in 25 municipalities. From all the samples 5,252 puparia and 3,039 adults of Tephritoidea were recovered. About 78.1% of all adults collected were Tephritidae [77.1% de Anastrepha sp. and 1.0% de Ceratitis capitata (Wied.)] and 21.9% were Lonchaeidae (Neosilba spp.). All females of Anastrepha were identified as A. fraterculus (Wied.). Adults of Braconidae, Diapriidae and Eucoilinae emerged from the citrus samples. Mean infestation indices were 0.4 puparium/ fruit and 3.70 puparia/kg of fruits. Sweet oranges were the most susceptible to Tephritoidea infestations when the number of puparia/fruit was considered. In isolated samples, 'Cravo mandarin' (Citrus reticulata) and sour orange (Citrus aurantium) showed the highest infestation indices (3.4 and 2.4 puparia/fruit, respectively). Some samples of 'Kunquat' (Fortunella sp.) and 'Cravo' mandarin reached high levels of infestation (64.0 and 37.9 puparia/kg of fruits, respectively). The sweet oranges were the most susceptible to Tephritoidea infestations in the state of Sao Paulo. The parasitoid Opiinae D. areolatus was the most abundant braconid species.