Tachinidae (Diptera) collected in traps used for mass-trapping of Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) (Diptera Tephritidae) in olive groves in Central Spain

Tachinid flies are important for biological control of pests, because most species are parasitoids of insects. The objectives of this work were 1) to describe the species of tachinid flies captured by mass trapping devices against the olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae, in olive groves in Central Spain, and 2) to report on the selectivity of the different devices for this important group of insects. The study was carried out in two olive groves in the province of Madrid during 2005 and 2008. The number of trapping devices was five in 2005 and twelve in 2008. A total of 66 species of tachinid flies was captured. Comments on some of them are provided because of their special interest. Three tachinid species (Clemelis massilia, Schembria meridionalis and Ceromya flaviseta) are recorded from the Iberian Peninsula for the first time. It is remarkable that captures of C. massilia accounted for 72.3% in 2008. Comparison of the different mass-trapping devices indicates that none of them is selective for this important family of parasitoids. Numbers of tachinid flies captured per trap and season ranged between 1 and 13 in 2005, and 24 and 283 in 2008. This is the first study carried out in Spain on tachinids captured by mass-trapping devices and it reports the abundance and species diversity of this group of insects in olive groves as well as the poor selectivity of mass-trapping on them.