Essential Oils from Schinus polygama and Baccharis spartioides enhance mating competitiveness of Anastrepha fraterculus males.

FLAVIA JOFRE BARUD; M. LAURA JUAREZ; M. JOSEFINA RUIZ; LUCIA GOANE; GABRIELA VALLADARES; GUILLERMO BACHMANN; DIEGO SEGURA; LIZA LÓPEZ; M. TERESA VERA

Congreso; 1º Joint Meeting International Society of Chemical Ecology/Asociación Latinoamericana de Ecología Química.; 2016

The sexual performance of mass-reared males is a key factor forthe success of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT). For the Mediterranean fruitfly, Ceratitis capitata (Wied.), mating competitiveness is increasedthrough the exposure of males to the volatiles of ginger root oil (GRO) andoperational programs that release sterile insects implemented its use. Inprevious studies with essential oils of native species, we showed that theessential oils of Schinus polygama(Cav.) Cabrera and Baccharis spartioides(Hook. & Arn.) Remy confer a mating advantage over non-exposed males. The objectiveof this study was to evaluate whether the same effect is observed for the SouthAmerican fruit fly, Anastrephafraterculus (Wied.). Males from a laboratory colony of A. fraterculus were exposed to the volatiles of the essential oils of S.polygama, B. spartioidesand GRO. For each essential oil, one exposed male and one non-exposedmale were caged with a virgin female in a mating arena. The number of matingspairs obtained by each type of male, the latency to mate and the duration ofthe copula were recorded for each treatment. Results showed that the essentialoil of S. polygama conferred a mating advantage to A. fraterculusmales over non-exposed males (65.1 % vs 34.9%, respectively, p=0.0020).A similar effect was observed for the B. spartioides essential oil (65.7vs 34.2%, p= 0.0078). GRO did not increase the number of matingpairs (p > 0.05). No significant differences were observed for latency andcopula duration between exposed and non-exposed males in any of the treatments.This is the first time that essential oils from native plants are reported tosexually enhance A. fraterculus males. Results are important in thecontext of the sexual behaviour of A. fraterculus as well as in thedevelopment of the SIT for this species.