Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae): Further Studies on Selective Mating Response of Wild and of Unirradiated and Irradiated, Laboratory-Reared Flies in Field Cages1

Abstract

Mating preference of laboratory-reared and wild Mediterranean fruit flies, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (medfly), was studied in field cages. When laboratory-reared flies unirradiated and irradiated with 7, 10, 13, and 16 krad in N2 and dyed were compared with wild flies, mating speed of unirradiated, laboratory-reared flies was faster than that of wild flies. The unirradiated, laboratory-reared males preferred mating with unirradiated, laboratory-reared females, and wild males preferred mating with wild females. When laboratory-reared flies irradiated at 7, 10, 13, and 16 krad in N2 were paired with wild flies, however, mating speed was similar for both strains and mating became random apparently because the mating speed of the irradiated, laboratory-reared flies was reduced. In the tests combining flies exposed to all six treatments (laboratory-reared flies irradiated at 7, 10, 13, and 16 krad in N2, unirradiated flies, and wild flies) in one cage, those wild females which mated, mated equally well with wild males, and laboratory-reared males showing no preference and those laboratory males which mated, mated equally well with wild or laboratory females, again showing no preference.