Spatial and temporal distribution of South American fruit fly in vineyards

Abstract

ABSTRACT The South American fruit fly Anastrepha fraterculus (Wied., 1830) is one of the major insect pests of economic importance in vineyards of Southern Brazil. Understanding species behavior and knowing the moments when their population peaks occur can help producers and technicians to define management strategies. This work was carried out the spatial and temporal distribution of the A. fraterculus in two commercial vineyards of variety ‘Moscato Branco’ for two crop seasons. To evaluate the A. fraterculus distribution, we used the mass trapping system with handmade traps (transparent plastic bottles of polyethylene terephthalate - PET), baited with hydrolyzed protein CeraTrap™. The evaluations were performed every two weeks, counting the total number of adults found per trap in each vineyard. From the number of insects caught per trap, data analysis was performed using geostatistics, through semivariograms. The spatio-temporal fruit fly distribution was evaluated by thematic maps, using the inverse square distance interpolation. The semivariograms showed that most of the reviews were ‘pure nugget’ effect, indicating the absence of spatial data dependence. The spatio-temporal distribution maps allow us to assert that A. fraterculus shows invasive behavior in the vineyard, with its entry from the edges to the center, associated with the fruit ripening.