THE INFLUENCE OF ASYNCHRONY BETWEEN OLIVE MOTH (PRAYS OLEAE BERN.) ADULT EMERGENCE AND OLIVE FRUIT PHENOLOGY IN DETERMINING SUBSEQUENT FRUIT INFESTATION

Studies carried out in Granada, Southern Spain, during the period 1979–1988, on the relationship between the captures of adult Olive Moth in sex pheromone baited traps and the subsequent infestation on olive fruits have shown that a simple linear correlation exists between the two parameters but that a very low correlation coefficient is obtained when data from all the ten years are grouped together.
However, when the degree of synchrony between the flight of adults and the availability of ‘suitable’ fruits for oviposition is taken into account, as measured by some other parameters, such as percentage of adults caught after oviposition commencement and/or percentage of days without oviposition, and when one or both of these parameters are introduced into a multiple correlation regression, together with trap catches and infestation, the resulting correlation coefficient rises to very high values.
Using such a correlation it is possible to predict at an early stage the infestation category of any year and hence the need for control measures.

International Symposium on Olive Growing

P. Ramos, J.M. Ramos, O.T. Jones

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1990.286.81