Frugivorous flies have been acquiring great economic importance in coffee crop because they cause premature dropping of coffee beans and significantly decrease the quality of the beverage. The coffee plant is also a natural reservoir of Tephritidae species that infest fruits of economic importance. This study evaluated the influence of the shaded and unshaded coffee systems, under organic management, on the natural infestation of fruits of Coffea arabica L. var. Icatu Amarelo by frugivorous flies. An experiment in completely randomized design was carried out in Valença, RJ, Brazil, with two treatments (shaded coffee with Musa sp. and Erithrina verna Vell. and unshaded coffee monoculture) and four replicates. A 1kg-sample of maturing fruits per plot was harvested in Mach 2004 to evaluate infestation and identify the flies. The mean infestation index was significantly higher in the shaded coffee system. Four species of Tephritidae (Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedemann), Anastrepha obliqua (Macquart) and Anastrepha sororcula Zucchi), and six of Lonchaeidae (Neosilba pendula (Bezzi), Neosilba pseudopendula (Korytkowski and Ojeda), Neosilba certa (Walker), Neosilba glaberrima (Wiedemann), Neosilba n.sp.9 and Neosilba n.sp.10) were recovered from coffee fruits. Nine parasitoid species were obtained, six belonging to Braconidae (Asobara anastrephae (Muesebeck), Doryctobracon areolatus (Szépligeti), Doryctobracon brasiliensis (Szépligeti), Utetes anastrephae (Viereck), Opius bellus Gahan and Opius sp.), and three to Figitidae (Aganaspis pelleranoi (Brèthes), Dicerataspis flavipes (Kieffer) and Odontosema anastrephae Borgmeier). The total percent parasitism was 8.8% and 12.4% in the shaded and unshaded coffee systems, respectively.
Tephritidae; Lonchaeidae; Coffea arabica; infestation index; larval parasitism
