Biology of the ber fruitfly, Carpomya vesuviana (Dip.: Tephritidae) and identification of natural enemies in Bushehr province

Carpomya vesuviana Costa is one of the most important pests of Ziziphus spp. in Bushehr province. Field and laboratory studies on bionomics of this tephritid were carried out for three years (1997-1999) in Bushehr. The longevity was between 3 and 48 days in laboratory conditions. Adult longevity was from  14.6±4.2 to 25.8±6.3 days in different months. The sex ratio was 1:1. The pre-oviposition, oviposition and post-oviposition periods lasted 2 to 8, 3 to 35 and 0 to 12 days, respectively. The female lays egg after mating under fruit skin. The number of eggs/ovipunctures observed in a single fruit is generally 1 to 4 and a maximum of 8. Females laid averagely 19.1±5 eggs. Eggs-laying in most females (about 72.8%) is carried out in the first 3 to 7 days of their life. Females have higher fecundity during November and February and lower fecundity in March. The incubation period was 1-4 days and about 70.4 to 91.9 percent eggs turned out to be viable. The larval period was 6 to 22 days. Larvae had longer during December (15.5±3.6) and lived short during March (average 8.5±1.6). The maggots took 1.8 to 5 hours to prepare puparium. Pupal duration was variably different between 8-320 days. The shortest was 8 days in March-April and the longest was 320 days in September. The insect completed 8 to 10 overlapping generations each year. The shortest time for a complete cycle belonged to the flies which laid eggs in March, April and January. The longest time for a complete cycle was about 330 day which refers to the eggs laid in September-October. The over wintering and summering was a pupa within soil profile. This insect has diapose or might not have any diapose at all. Insect attack intensity was estimated between 30 and 100 percent in randomly inspected fruits. Fopius carpomyie (Hym.: Braconidae) is a larval parasitoid of C. vesuviana Costa in Bushehr province.