Male lures and male mating competitiveness in a genetic sexing strain of the melon fly (Diptera: Tephritidae)

• Published in: Journal of Asia-Pacific entomology Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 393 - 397
• Main Author: Shelly, Todd E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.06.2019; 한국응용곤충학회
• Subjects: Cue-lure; Mating competitiveness; Raspberry ketone; Sterile insect technique; Zeugodacus cucurbitae; 농수해양학; Cue-lure; Zeugodacus cucurbitae; Sterile insect technique; Raspberry ketone; Mating competitiveness
• ISSN: 1226-8615; 1876-7990
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aspen.2019.01.014

The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) has been used to suppress or eradicate populations of the melon fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett), a pest of various fruits and vegetables throughout Asia, Africa, and South Pacific Islands. The success of the SIT depends largely on the ability of released, sterile males to compete successfully with wild males for copulations with wild females. Unfortunately, both the sterilization process (via gamma irradiation) and artificial selection under mass-rearing conditions generally reduce the biological competence, including the mating competitiveness, of the released males. However, previous data on Z. cucurbitae show that irradiation has minimal adverse effects and prolonged mass-rearing may or may not result in decreased mating ability. The present study first confirms that neither irradiation nor mass-rearing had deleterious effects on male mating ability of males from a pupal-color, genetic sexing strain (termed T1). Then, the influence of male lures (cue-lure and its natural analogue raspberry ketone) on the mating success of sterile T1 males was measured as a potential pre-release procedure to improve the effectiveness of SIT. Feeding on cue-lure enhanced male mating success, but the effect was short-lived (1 d but not 3 d post-feeding). Feeding on raspberry ketone boosted mating success over a longer time, i.e., at least 5 d but not 10 d post-feeding. However, mixing raspberry ketone into the adult diet had no detectable effect on male mating performance. The implications of these results for SIT against Z. cucurbitae are discussed. [Display omitted] •Trials examined the effect of irradiation or semiochemicals on mating of male melon flies•Irradiation at 100 Gy had no adverse effect on mating in sterile males of the melon fly•Feeding on cue-lure increased mating success of sterile males for 1 day after feeding•Feeding on raspberry ketone increased mating success of sterile males for 5 days after feeding