Le simbiosi batteriche nella mosca delle olive, Bactrocera oleae: dalla ricerca di base allo sviluppo di nuove strategie di controllo

Bacterial symbioses in the olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae: from basic research to new control strategies development. Recent and previous studies have shown that the olive fly, Bactrocera oleae houses in the alimentary canal a symbiotic bacterial community such as Candidatus Erwinia dacicola, and other bacterial species that are acquired by the fly as food source. In this paper we report the resu1ts of a research on the effects of probiotic diets on some physiological parameters of B. oleae reared on artificial substrate. Further, the study of the complex relationships that the fly establishes with phylloplane bacteria has allowed us to develop an attractant, obtained fròm an epiphytic bacterium, that showed a marked attractiveness towards females of B. oleae. The subsequent isolation and identification of volatile compounds emitted from bacterial filtrate, enabled a first and positive assessment in behavioral and electrophysiological bioassays, that open perspectives for the development of new attractants as possible tools in control strategies based on attract and kill techniques in area wide olive system.