Influence of adult diet and exposure to methyl eugenol in the mating performance of Bactrocera correcta

Abstract

The Guava fruit fly Bactrocera correcta is serious pest attacking Dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus and Hylocereus polyrhizus ). The study on the impact of (i) Protein in adult diet on sexual maturity of Guava fruit fly; (ii) Methyl eugenol (ME) feeding on sterilized male of Guava fruit fly; and (iii) Longevity of sterilized males and females feeding on different diets. All those trials were conducted for both sterile males and laboratory flies reared at Plant Protection Research Institute, Hanoi, Viet Nam. The initial results showed that the first age of sexual maturation of laboratory reared females are 7 days old and 8 days old when fed on a mix diet of hydrolyzed yeast: sugar (1:4) and only sugar diet, respectively. Four days after emergence, females on hydrolyzed yeast fed diet died. The highest percentage of mating for the period of 20 first days after emergence was recorded 7.19% at 11 days old of flies fed on sugar; 40.08% at 10 days old of flies fed on hydrolyzed yeast and sugar. The longevity of sterilized males was 30.7 days, 28.1 days and 3.2 days as feeding on mix of hydrolyzed yeast: sugar, sugar only and hydrolyzed yeast alone, respectively. Likewise, the longevity of females was 32.5 days on hydrolyzed yeast: sugar diet, 30.5 days on sugar only diet and 3.7 days on hydrolyzed yeast only diet. The percentage of sterile males feeding on ME at 3 days old was only 5% and reached 40% at 8 days old with feeding times of 44 seconds and 4 minutes 27 seconds respectively.