Essential oils enhance mating competitiveness of Anastrepha fraterculus males.

M. LAURA JUÁREZ, M. JOSEFINA RUIZ, FLAVIA JOFRÉ BARUD, LUCIA GOANE, GABRIELA VALLADARES, GUILLERMO BACHMANN, DIEGO SEGURA, PATRICIA FERNÁNDEZ, M. TERESA VERA, M. LIZA LÓPEZ

Congreso; . 9 Reunión del grupo de trabajo en Mosca de la Fruta del Hemisferio Occidental (9 Meeting of Tephritid Workers of Western Hemiphere); 2016

Exposure to plant chemicals may affect behavior andphysiology of many phytophagous insects. This haspractical implications for fruit fly pest management with the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), particularly when plant chemicalsenhance mating successof mass-reared males. Previous studies with theSouth American fruit fly, Anastrephafraterculus (Wied.), showed that exposure to guava and lemon fruit volatiles resultedin a positive effect on male sexual competitiveness. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impactof different essential oils as well as limonene and citral in A. fraterculus male mating competitiveness. We exposed males to the essential oils of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) (GRO), lemon [Citruslimon (L.) Burm], orange [Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck] and two aromaticspecies, Schinus polygama (Cav.)Cabrera and Baccharis spartioides (Hook& Arn. ex DC.) J. Remy as well as to limonene and citral. For eachessential oil, one exposed male and one non-exposed male were caged with avirgin female in a mating arena. The number of matings pairs obtained by eachtype of male, the latency to mate and the duration of the copula were recordedfor each treatment. Results showed that A.fraterculus males exposed to the volatiles of the essential oils of S. polygama and B. spartioides had a mating advantage over non-exposed males. Preliminaryresults showed a similar effect for lemon oil as well as for citral. On thecontrary, GRO did not increase the number of mating pairs. No significantdifferences were observed for latency [L1] and copula duration between exposed and non-exposed males in any of the treatments.This is the first time that essential oils are reported to sexually enhance A. fraterculus males. Put together, ourresults are important in the context of the sexual behavior of A. fraterculus as well as in thedevelopment of the SIT for this species.