Studies on the eradication of anopheles pharoensis by the sterile-male technique using cobalt-60. Mating competitiveness in radiosterilized males.

Abstract

A study of mating competitiveness between sterilized males and normal males of Anopheles pharoensis Theobald showed that males treated with 12,000 R (the sterilizing dosage of γ-rays) were slightly less competitive than normal males when present in the population cages in ratios of 1:1:1 and 5:1:1 (irradiated males + normal males + normal females). But at ratios of 10:1:1 and 15:1:1, the competitiveness of the irradiated sterile males was increased. Normal males captured from nature as larvae and bred in the laboratory showed almost the same mating competitiveness as males from the laboratory colony. By replacing normal males with irradiated males in the normal population, egg hatchability showed a decrease as compared with their controls. Replacing irradiated males with normal males did not produce a decrease in egg hatchability.