An egg-laying device to estimate the induction of sterility in Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae) sterile insect technique programmes

MARÍA JOSEFINA BUONOCORE BIANCHERI; SERGIO M. OVRUSKI; PABLO SCHLISERMAN; FERNANDO MURÚA; CLAUDIA DE LOS RÍOS; FERNANDO MURÚA; CLAUDIA DE LOS RÍOS; LORENA SUÁREZ; JUAN RULL; JORGE ESCOBAR; LORENA SUÁREZ; JUAN RULL; JORGE ESCOBAR; MARÍA JOSEFINA BUONOCORE BIANCHERI; SERGIO M. OVRUSKI; PABLO SCHLISERMAN

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2019 vol. 143 p. 144 - 154

0931-2048

Area-wide environmentally friendly pest control methods such as the sterile insecttechnique (SIT) are being developed and improved to contribute in managing agricultural, environmental and public health problems. A key aspect to evaluate performance of sterile males is to directly measure sterility induction in the field. Sterilityinduction has been estimated for tephritid fruit flies by recovering egg from host fruitin the field, the method is, however, impractical, and past efforts to develop artificialegg-laying devices have not prospered. Here, we evaluated response of wild gravidCeratitis capitata (Medfly) females to long-distance fruit-based chemical attractants,visual and tactile stimuli to develop an artificial egg-laying device. The device combining the most attractive features was further tested under two deploymentschemes. Finally, devices and deployment tactics were used to compare fertility levels between feral Medfly females under conventional management and under SIT.Agar spheres wrapped in plastic film, baited with pressed peach juice and visuallyenhanced with yellow discs received more egg than other combinations of attractivefeatures. Such devices also received more eggs when deployed on fruitless trees andwhen placed on the orchard perimeter. The egg hatch in an orchard under conventional management was estimated at 86%, whilst egg hatch in an area under SIT wasreduced to 31%. The egg-laying devices are therefore useful to measure sterility induction and can be further improved by refining long-distance attraction and deployment schemes