Study of Damage of Ectomyelois ceratonia in three Pomegranate Cultivars

Carob moth (Ectomyelois ceratonia Zell Lepidoptera: pyralidae)is the most important reason of the quantitative and qualitative reduction of pomegranate (Punica granatum) yield all over pomegranate cultivation regions of Iran like Isfahan province.Isfahan province with 7620.5 hectare pomegranate orchards is in third place of pomegranate production (after Fars and Markazi provinces) in Iran , and following cultivars are the most important cultivars in Isfahan: Naderi, Ravandi, red aril soursweet, Shahvar sweet, Ameneh Khatooni and Zaagh shirin.The carob moth damage was studied for three cultivars (red aril soursweet, white skin sweet and red skin sour) in five regions (Natanz, Koohpayeh, Shahreza, Rooran and Najafabad) during the 2010 year.In order to determine tolerant cultivars and damage levels of this pest in Isfahan province, primary sampling was conducted to define required sampling number and 60 tree numbers distinguished as required sample.Then 60 trees of each cultivar were selected randomly from orchards of each region which had same aged trees of all three cultivars and larger than five hectares, infected and non-infected fruits were counted and recorded. According to the results, regions and cultivars had highly significant (p < 0.01) effect on infection rate and Natanz had the highest infection whereas Najafabad showed the least and also sour cultivar showed the highest infection whereas sour sweet cultivar had the least.