Effect of Stamen Removal on Pomegranate Infestation to Carob Moth Ectomyelois ceratoniae Zeller

In order to investigate the role of stamen removal from pomegranate flowers on percentage of fruit infestation to carob moth Ectomyelois ceratoniae Zeller (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) a survey was carried out in two provinces of Iran, Markazi and Yazd during 2004-2005. Treatments were arranged in an RCBD (10 of 3 blocks) in 3 treatments of: stamen removal in all flowers, (A); stamen removal in first group of flowers, (B); and non removal as control, (C); replicated 3 times at two location in each Province. Stamen removal was carried out in mid May to mid August and mid May to early June, for the first and second treatments, respectively. Analyses were made by means of SAS software following Arc Sin transformation of percentage data. A spatial electric apparatus was constructed for stamen removal. Samples were taken every other weeks and the infested fruits from on and under the trees were collected and counted. The percentages of split fruits were also counted at the end of growing season. In Markazi Province (Saveh) results revealed that there is a statistically significant difference among treated and untreated plots at ?= 0.05. The Percentage of Fruit Infestation (PFI) in C, B and A treatments were 27.76, 22.65, and 19.39 respectively. The Percentage of Split Fruits (PSF) in above treatments were 12.69, 14.95, and 14.2 respectively which no significant differences observed among them. The differences among Infested Fruits (IF) with or without stamen were significant at ?= 0.01 using t-test for comparison. In Yazd Province, Meibod, the PFI in the above mentioned treatments were 24.18, 18.74, 17.22 while PSF figures were 17.9, 16.2 and 15.3 respectively with significant differences observed among the first group of treatments. The differences among IF with or without stamen were also significant in this location (?= 0.01). In this Province in Aqda, the PFI figures were 37.42, 33.12, 31.32 and the PSF ones 10.1, 9.74 and 9.43 respectively, significant differences observed only among the first group. The differences among IF in treatments with or without stamen were also significant at ?= 0.01.