Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Feijoa sellowiana monoculture and agroforestry systems.

Feijoa (Feijoa sellowiana [Berg] Burret) has been cultivated in both agroforestry and monoculture systems in the southern region of Brazil. However, little is known about the occurrence of pests related to this culture in such region, especially in agroecological production systems. Within the economical relevant insects, fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) occupy a concerning status to many producers. In this context, we aimed to monitor the presence of tephritides in F. sellowiana fruits produced under two different agroecological conditions, a monospecific cultivation and an agroforestry system. It was installed 30 traps on F. sellowiana trees, and their content collections executed every 10 days during the fructification period of 2019/2020 harvest, when it was also removed fruits to monitor the fruit flies larva. Additionally, it was measured the parameters related to plant height, crown and trunk tree circumferences, as well as the plant productivity. In total, 1805 individuals were collected from the fruit fly traps, with a higher occurrence in the monospecific cultivation. It was observed a sexual ratio of 3.74 females for 1 male. About the larval monitoring, the infestation index was 11.86 pupae/fruit to the agroforestry system and 15.4 to the monospecific one, with a pupal feasibility of 25.84% and 11.26% to these areas, respectively. It was not observed statistical significance in relation to plants size parameters and occurrence of fruit flies in the monitored areas. In general, was observed lowest occurrence of fruit flies in the agroforestry system, suggesting the viability of cultivating feijoa in biodiverse systems.