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SERAFÌCO:
“THE REASON WHY”

Most people don’t know what “Serafìca” means, but Maremma people do.

The “Serafìca” is a little hematophagous Diptera bug of the Ceratopogonidae family. This bug lives along Maremma coasts, the nearby estuary of rivers, or wetlands. The “Seraf ica” appears in a part of the year only, during June and the beginning of July. This is a sensitive period for the olive tree: plant flowering follows the f ruit set in mid-June. The setting percentage is less than 5%. In this period flowers an advance and plenty falling (colatura). The old Maremma farmers nearby the sea thought there was a relationship between Serafìca and olive tree: in act the insect f inds a shelter between flowers and leaves, and the farmers say “this process has a positive effect on the f ruit set, decreasing the colatura, improving flavor and strenght of the olives.