Among the dried fruits, hazelnut cultivation represents one of the greater world productions. Based on this consideration, it has been decided to verify whether the great commercial importance of this fruit corresponds to an equally dynamic and productive scientific activity. The aim of this study is to analyze the network structure and the conceptual evolution of research on Corylus avellana through time. A scientific mapping approach was used and applied to a set of scientific publications from 1980 to 2019, retrieved from the Scopus database. From this period, the Scopus search provided 861 documents. During the 1980–1999 period, research topics were poorly characterized, but better defined in the 2000–2019 period. From 2000 to 2009, the research focused on three distinct areas of interest: (i) genetic techniques aimed at the study and resolution of phytosanitary problems; (ii) genetic improvement of new cultivars in order to obtain production quality; (iii) open-field cultivation techniques to improve the quantity of hazelnut production and the quality of the product. In the last decade (2010–2019), genetic improvement techniques, both in the laboratory and in the field, have merged into a single cluster using the most innovative molecular biology techniques. At the same time, the cultivation techniques were oriented not only toward production in the field, but also at studying and improving the quality of the products. Through the analysis was possible to trace some future lines of scientific research for this relatively unexplored topic.

The Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly), Ceratitis capitata, is considered one of the most destructive fruit pests worldwide. Female medflies prefer to lay eggs in ripening, ripe, or overripe fruits. In deciduous orchards of temperate regions, fruitlets (juvenile fruits) of early cultivars could represent the earliest spring resource with a potential host function for medflies. However, little is known about the medfly female’s ability to ovipositing and complete breeding in fruitlets. To clarify the possible role of fruitlets, the suitability of key-host fruitlets for the oviposition of medflies and the further development of immature stages were examined in laboratory conditions and an attempt was made to assess the degree of infection of fruitlets collected in the field. Additionally, the development of the overwintering medfly population and the putative use of fruitlets as a resource for early population growth were simulated using the PESTonFARM model optimized to reflect specific features of medfly biology and behavior. Our laboratory data demonstrate that nectarine and pear fruitlets can support the full development of medfly offspring. However, no medfly pupae were obtained from a sample of 14,000 fruitlets collected at the farm. The simulation showed that the sample number needed to detect with at least 95% certainty rare cases of medfly pupae or adults emerging from infected fruitlets is several tens of thousands, which is several times more than the actual number of fruitlets used in our study. Our research suggests that the fruitlets of some cultivated fruit species can potentially constitute a viable food resource for the development of the earliest generation of spring medflies, with implications for medfly Integrated Pest Management (IPM).