Pre-release diet effect on field survival and dispersal of Anastrepha ludens and Anastrepha obliqua (Diptera: Tephritidae)

UTGES M. E. ; VILARDI J.C.; OROPEZA, A.; LIEDO, P.

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Goettingen; Año: 2013 p. 163 - 177

0931-2048

The effect of pre-release diets on starvation resistance, field survival anddispersal of sterile Anastrepha ludens and Anastrepha obliqua fruit flies wasinvestigated. Protein-enriched diets resulted in reduced longevity underlaboratory and field conditions. Flies exposed to a combination of sugarand fresh mango fruit pulp showed greater longevity and field survival.Release?recapture experiments showed that this mango plus sugar dietresulted in the greatest trap capture and the longest life expectancywhen compared with the other treatments. Per cent recapture rangedfrom 0.24% to 17.50%. More females than males were recaptured. Spa-tial distribution was not affected by diet treatment, sex or replicate, butwas affected by environmental conditions, such as vegetation cover orshade in the case of A. ludens or prevalent winds in the case of A. obli-qua. Our results confirm the trade-offs between better mating perfor-mance and reduced survival produced by protein-rich diets and suggestfresh mango fruits, their products or derivates as an alternative tobe developed to overcome this problem for sterile insect techniqueprogrammes.