High quality extra virgin olive oil from olives attacked by the olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) (Diptera Tephritidae): which is the tolerable limit? Data from experimental ‘Nocellara del Belice’ and ‘Cerasuola’ olive groves in Sicily

The infestation due to the olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae (Rossi), the key pest in most of world olive groves, has been monitored in six years, from 2004 to 2008 and in 2014, in eight coastal Sicilian olive groves consisting of ‘Cerasuola’ and ‘Nocellara del Belice’ cultivars. Infestation was recorded following the classical sampling method based on olive collection and dissection, in order to count live olive fruit fly instars (eggs, larvae and pupae) and exit holes. Four different infestation indexes, all of them calculated using data recorded at harvest, have been used to assess their relationship with the main three quality parameters of the olive oil obtained from the same olive sam…