determination of the best combination of trap and attractant for mass trapping the mediterraneam fruit, ceratitis capitata ( diptera: tephritidae ), in a pomegranate orchard in shiraz ( fars province )

fruit fly, ceratitis capitata (diptera:tephritidae), worldwide. to determine the best combination of trap and attractant for mass trapping of mediterranean fruit fly, a field experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design (rcbd) with 6 treatments in 3 replications in a pomegranate orchard in shiraz (iran) in 2009. treatments included: 1-jackson trap baited with trimedlure, 2- mcphail trap baited with trimedlure, 3- tephri trap baited with biolure, 4- tephri trap baited with cera trap liquid, 5- plastic bottle baited with cera trap liquid, and 6- yellow sticky cards. traps were installed on pomegranate trees at an early stage of fruit color changing. they were checked weekly and the number of captured flies and non -target insects were recorded. the mean number of total captured flies per treatment per day (ftd) and non- target insects per treatment per day (ntid) was calculated. data were exposed to analysis of variance (anova) followed by duncan’s multiple range test (dmrt). results revealed significant differences among the treatments at probability level of 0.01. ftd were 0.77, 1.90, 0.58, 0.2, 0.13 and zero respectively but nitd were 0.01, 0.02, 2.46, 4.19, 6.79, and 0.74, respectively. in total, 85.6 percent of the total captured insects in all traps included non-target insects. minettia sp. (dip.: lauxaniidae), drosophila melanogaster and zaprinous indica (dip: drossophildae) were the dominant species among the non-target insects. the total captured adult males in treatments one and two were more than 95 percent, and in treatments 3, 4 and 5, they constituted 24, 27 and 22.5 percent, respectively. finally, mcphail trap baited with trimedlure was the best combination among all treatments from technical, ecological and economical aspects .