Abstract
The development of cost-effective diets for mass-rearing fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) and their parasitoids in pest control programs based on the Sterile Insect Technique is a high priority worldwide. To this end, we tested carrageenan, agar, gelatin and two types of pregelatinized corn starches as gelling agents at varying percentages in a yeast-reduced liquid larval diet for rearing the Mexfly, Anastrepha ludens. Only diets with 0.234% (w/w) agar or 0.424% carrageenan were identified as diets with potential for mass-rearing A. ludens in terms of the number of pupae recovered from the diet, pupal weight, adult emergence, flight ability and diet cost. Comparative experiments showed that yeast-reduced agar and carrageenan gel diets produced heavier pupae and higher proportions of flying adults than the standard mass-rearing diet. The gel-agar and mass-rearing diets produced more pupae than the gel-carrageenan diet, but the latter produced more suitable larvae as hosts for rearing of Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) females, a widely used fruit fly biocontrol agent. Yeast-reduced agar and carrageenan gel diets could represent cost-effective fruit fly mass-rearing diets if a practical system for gel diet preparation and dispensation at fruit fly mass-rearing facilities is developed.
Highlights
The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) and biological control programs using hymenopterous parasitoids to control pestiferous fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) worldwide, depend on a continuous supply of millions of high-quality insects that have been reared in cost-effective artificial diets [1,2].These diets constitute the medium in which fruit fly larvae will live, feed and interact with conspecifics before metamorphosing into pupae
Our results indicate that yeast‐reduced gel diet formulations based on carrageenan reduction in the yeast content in the diets we tested in Experiment 3 (Appendix A, Table A3), made our and agar as gelling agents can be used for more cost‐effective rearing of A. ludens (Figures 2 and 3)
Another possibility is that gel diets facilitate larval movement and reduce metabolic heat allowing larvae to group and via a social facilitation phenomenon increase per capita ingestion which could explain why almost no residues are left. These ideas merit further investigation. Another novel aspect of our study is represented by the fact that, in addition of having addressed the fly perspective, we examined the quality of A. ludens larvae reared on gel diets as hosts of the parasitoid wasp D. longicaudata
Summary
The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) and biological control programs using hymenopterous parasitoids to control pestiferous fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) worldwide, depend on a continuous supply of millions of high-quality insects that have been reared in cost-effective artificial diets [1,2]. These diets constitute the medium in which fruit fly larvae will live, feed and interact with conspecifics before metamorphosing into pupae. This pest is distributed from southern US throughout Mexico to Central America [6]
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