Essential oils enhance mating competitiveness of Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedemann) males.

JUÁREZ, M. L.; RUIZ, M. J; JOFRÉ-BARUD, F.; GOANE, L.; VALLADARES, G.; BACHMANN, G. E.; ZAMORA BELLI, ANA LUCÍA; SEGURA, D.; FERNÁNDEZ, P.; VERA M. T.; LOPEZ, M.L.

Simposio; 9 REUNIÓN DEL GRUPO DE TRABAJO MOSCAS DE LA FRUTA DEL HEMISFERIO OCCIDENTAL; 2016

Exposure to plant chemicals may affect behavior and physiology of manyphytophagous insects. This has practical implications for fruit fly pest managementwith the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), particularly when plant chemicals enhancemating success of mass-reared males. Previous studies with the South American fruitfly, Anastrepha fraterculus (Wied.), showed that exposure to guava and lemon fruitvolatiles resulted in a positive effect on male sexual competitiveness. Our objectivewas to evaluate the impact of different essential oils as well as two terpenoidcompounds on A. fraterculus male mating competitiveness. We exposed males tothe essential oils of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) (GRO), lemon [Citrus limon(L.) Burm], orange [Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck] and two aromatic species, Schinuspolygama (Cav.) Cabrera and Baccharis spartioides (Hook & Arn. ex DC.) J. Remyas well as to limonene and citral. For all treatments, an exposed and a non-exposedmale were caged with a virgin female in a mating arena. Number of matings pairsobtained by each type of male, latency to mate and duration of the copula wererecorded for each treatment. Results showed that A. fraterculus males exposed tothe volatiles of S. polygama and B. spartioides essential oils had a mating advantageover non-exposed males. Preliminary results showed a similar effect for lemon oilas well as for citral. On the contrary, GRO did not increase the number of matingpairs. Non significant differences were observed for latency between exposed andnon-exposed males in all treatments, while for copula duration only S. polygamashowed significant differences. This is the first time that essential oils are reportedto sexually enhance A. fraterculus males. Together, our results are important in thecontext of the sexual behavior of A. fraterculus as well as in the development of theSIT for this species.