Field infection comparison of six olive cultivars against olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae Rossi

Olive fruit fly Bactrocera (Dacus) oleae is one of the injurious pests of olive which has caused considerable damage to olive orchards in recent years. Larval feeding on olive fruit induce fruit fall and decline the qualitative and quantitative parameters of olive oil.. Moreover, exit hole of the larvae provides way for additional fungal infections leading to fruit deformation and loss of marketing values. Different cultivars show different reactions to pest damage which can be used in integrated pest management. This research was carried out during 2006 using olive collections of Roudbar, Tarom and Loshan research stations located in Gilan, Zanjan and Qazvin provinces respectivelly. Sampling from fruits was started during stone hardening and continued untill harvest time and 20–50 fruits, were collected in each replication and examined carefully visually and under binocular microscope in laboratory. Over all results showed that native cultivar of “Roughani” differed significantly from the other cultivars, including three imported cultivars of: “Konservalia”, “Arbequin”, “Leccino” and two native cultivars land races of: ”Zard’ and “Mary” and had less of less susceptibility to olive fruit fly.