Fruit Fly Pupae Research Articles

Evaluating impacts of radiation-induced sterilization on the performance and gut microbiome of mass-reared Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) in Hawai'i.

Sterile insect technique (SIT) is a useful strategy for preventing and mitigative establishment of invasive insect species. SIT of the pest tephritid Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann, 1824)WiedemannWiedemann, has been effective in preventing population establishment in vulnerable agricultural areas of the United States. However, irradiation-induced sterilization can have detrimental impacts resulting in reduced performance metrics. Mediterranean fruit fly males reared for SIT have been shown to have differences in their microbiomes relative to other population sources, which has been postulated to be a factor in how well flies compete with wild conspecifics. To identify baseline performance metrics on the effects of irradiation on the gut microbiome of mass-reared flies in Hawai'i, a study was performed to assess performance metrics and microbiome (bacterial 16S rRNA) variation across multiple timepoints. Mediterranean fruit fly pupae were selected from mass-reared trays intended for release, and paired samples were either irradiated or remained as controls and transported to the laboratory for evaluation. Irradiated flies exhibited fewer successful fliers, more rapid mortality rates, and were less active relative to control nonirradiated flies. Contrary to initial expectations, irradiation did not exert substantial impacts on the composition or diversity of bacterial reads. Samples were primarily comprised of sequences classified as Klebsiella and there were low levels of both read and taxonomic diversity relative to other 16S surveys of medfly. Although this study does not demonstrate a strong effect of irradiation alone on the Mediterranean fruit fly microbiome, there are several explanations for this discrepancy.

Functional response and mutual interference in the parasitoid Coptera haywardi (Oglobin) (Hymenoptera: Diapriidae) attacking Anastrepha ludens (Loew) (Diptera: Tephritidae) pupae.

Functional response and mutual interference are important attributes of natural enemies that should be analysed in species with the potential to be used as biological control agents in order to increase the predictive power of the possible benefits and/or consequences of their release in the field. Our main objective was to determine the functional response and mutual interference of Coptera haywardi (Oglobin), a pupal parasitoid of economically important fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae). The functional response of C. haywardi on A. ludens pupae corresponded to a type II model, with an attack rate of 0.0134 host pupa/h and a handling time of 1.843 h, which reveals a meticulous selection process of pupal hosts. The effect of mutual interference among foraging females was negatively correlated with increased parasitoid density in the experimental arena, showing a gradual decline in attack rate per individual female. The increase in the number of foraging females also had an impact on the number of oviposition scars per pupa and the number of immature parasitoids per dissected pupa, but not on the percentage of adult emergence or the sex ratio. Our results suggest that C. haywardi could act as a complementary parasitoid in the control of fruit fly pupae, since the random distribution of these pupae in the soil would decrease the possibility of aggregation and mutual interference between foraging females.

The relationship between overwintering peach fruit fly pupae Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) (Diptera: Tephritidae) and some pathogenies in citrus orchard soils in Diyala province

A field and laboratory study was conducted for soil samples in citrus orchards in the Muqdadiya region - Diyala province in year 2021, for three depths (3, 5, and 7) cm, to detect overwintering peach fruit fly pupae Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) its infecting by Beauveria bassiana (Bals) Vuill. . The results showed that inverse (negative) correlation between the rates of the numbers of fungal colonies and the different soil depths, as the correlation value was (-0.906).

Effect of X-ray Irradiation on Pupal Development of Bactrocera zonata and Bactrocera dorsalis under Laboratory Conditions

The studies were performed to check the effect of X-ray doses such as 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 Gy on the Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) and Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) pupae reared on different diets. The laboratory strains of the Peach fruit fly and Oriental fruit fly reared on Guava, Mango and artificial diets. Results showed a significantly (P<0.05) greater number of deformed adults (Males and Females) of B. zonata at 100 Gy dose of x-ray irradiation followed by B. dorsalis obtained from artificial diets. Less deformity in adults of both fruit fly species was found at the same dosage of irradiation when maggots tended on mango. Similarly, a reduced number of normal adults of both fruit flies were recorded at 100 Gy dose of X-rays reared on an artificial diet. Reduced pupal emergence was recorded on an artificial diet. From the above results, it is determined that B. zonata is more tolerant to different irradiation doses. Results of the present investigation would be useful to control or target fruit fly pupae in fruits of trade commodities as these pests are universally regulated as quarantine pests.

Automatic classification of parasitized fruit fly pupae from X-ray images by convolutional neural networks

The parasitoid wasp Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) has been used for the biological control of fruit fly larvae in many countries. Due to the large scale of production, quality control systems must be utilized to assess insect quality to optimize prerelease activities. However, the parasitism rate, and the unparasitized puparia, which become waste pupae, can only be known after waiting for the emergence of the adults from sampled pupae (ca. 16 days at 25 °C). This waiting time can result in resources being wasted. A way to speed up the quality control of pupal batches and increase the accuracy of the production process would be to combine digital radiography of the parasitized pupae and deep learning methods for the automatic classification of images. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to discriminate parasitized from waste pupae through X-ray images and to test the suitability of 7 Convolutional Neural Networks to classify the pupal images. Radiographic images from 11-day-old pupae allowed the in vivo identification of immature stages of the parasitoid, preserving the viability of the wasp. A positive correlation was found between the number of emerged parasitoids and the ones identified in the X-ray images. In terms of performance metrics, the accuracies achieved by all CNN-based neural architectures were higher than 97%, indicating a high predictive classification power. At least three of the CNNs tested showed great potential as classifiers of X-ray images of parasitized pupae and can be indicated for practical applications in quality control programs.

Identification of fruit fly (Tephritidae) pupae parasitized by hymenoptera parasitoids

AbstractOne of the major problems in orchards is the presence of Tephritidae fly maggots, especially in Mirtaceae species. Various biological control tools include the use of Hymenoptera parasitoids, which naturally control fly populations. However, identification of the host species of parasitoids is challenging, because only the puparium remains after the parasitoid hatches. Therefore, the aim of this work was to determine the host species of Hymenoptera parasitoids, through the puparium. Host species were identified by amplification and sequencing of cytochrome C oxidase subunit I (COI) of mitochondrial DNA. The results of the present study show that COI DNA sequencing was able to reliably identify host pupae to the genus level, allowing the identification of the Anastrepha genus in this study. This suggests that this method can be used to identify agriculturally relevant hosts through its puparium remains, since this genus has already been described as a pest of Campomanesia adamantium. Knowledge of the species that cause damage to crop is extremely important to study the biological and ecological aspects of these pests and their control. In this way, our results suggest that this method can be used to identify economically relevant host pupal species since the genus identified in this study has already been described as a pest of C. adamantium.

Efficacy of Abiotic Factors on Population Dynamics of Fruit Fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) Larva and Pupa

The fruit fly B. dorsalis is a serious fruit and vegetable pest in South-East Asia. It causes 25-100% loss of horticultural crops by laying eggs under the skin of mangoes, peaches, guava, apricots and figs. Abiotic factors are ecological factors including temperature, humidity, and rainfall. These factors adversely affect the population dynamics of fruit fly larvae and pupae. Plants were randomly selected and installed with methyleugenol pheromone traps to study the population dynamics of Bactrocera dorsalis and correlate with abiotic factors. The fruits that had fallen were retrieved after a gap of 7-8 days. The contaminated fruit samples were exposed in the lab after a 9-10 days incubation period, and the larvae were counted. To ascertain the relationship between the larval and pupal populations of fruit flies in citrus, the one-way ANOVA technique was used. Bactrocera dorsalis larvae and pupae populations were the greatest at high temperatures and low humidity.

Combination of 3D printing and electrospinning to develop chitin/gelatin/PVA scaffolds.

In this study, novel scaffolds based on natural polymers were developed by combining 3D printing (3DP) and electrospinning (ES) techniques. ES ink was prepared with gelatin and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), while 3DP ink was prepared with gelatin and chitin. Different biopolymers were used to confer unique properties to each ink and obtain a multilayered scaffold suitable for tissue regeneration. First, gelatin is able to exhibit the characteristics needed for both inks since gelatin chains contain arginineglycine-aspartic (RGD) motifs, an important sequence in the promotion of cell adhesion, which gives gelatin an improved biological behavior in comparison to other polymers. Additionally, PVA was selected for ES ink to facilitate gelatin spinnability, and chitin was incorporated into 3DP ink as reinforcement to provide mechanical support and protection to the overall design. In this work, chitin was extracted from fruit fly pupae. The high extraction yield and purity of the chitin obtained from the fruit fly pupae confirmed that this pupa is an alternative source to produce chitin. Once the chitin was characterized, both inks were prepared and rheological analysis was carried out in order to confirm the shear thinning behavior required for additive manufacturing processes. The combination of 3DP and ES processes resulted in porous scaffolds, which were proven biocompatible, highlighting their potential for biomedical applications.

Influence of ground beetles (Carabidae) as biological agent to control of the Mediterranean fruit fly pupae, Ceratitis capitata, in Iranian citrus orchards

• High diversity and density of Carabidae observed with eliminated pesticide spray. • Instead pesticide, mineral oil spray led conserving the carabids species. • Seasonal density fluctuation of Carabidae was observed, increasing in spring. • Highest population of Carabidae with the peak of fruit fly damage in September. • H. rufipes, B. karelinii and Pterostichus macer were the most voracious predators. Damage by Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae) in the northern Iranian citrus orchards has been led to spray by different chemical pesticides. The present study was conducted in the citrus orchard in Mazandaran province of Iran where with the exception of mineral oil treatments for scale insects, had not been sprayed with synthetic insecticides for six years. The purpose of this study was initially to investigate faun and seasonal activity of predaceous ground carabid beetles in the citrus orchards. Additionally, their role as predators of Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) pupae was evaluated under laboratory and field conditions. Predation in laboratory was evaluated by no choice feeding experiments while predation under field conditions was evaluated by molecular detection of the pest DNA in the gut contents of field-collected Carabids. A total of 3,437 beetles of ten carabid species were collected from a non-chemical treatment citrus orchard. The results of the seasonal density fluctuation indicated increasing population in spring reaching the highest in September, simultaneously with the peak of fruit fly damage, and thereafter decreasing during winter when the pest was overwintering. However, three species, Harpalus rufipes, Broscus karelinii and Brachinus brevicollis were most abundant in the field collection but the results of no-choice experiments in the laboratory indicated H. rufipes, B. karelinii and Pterostichus macer were the most voracious predators on pupae. Results of gut content analysis of the voracious species indicated the positive testing for pest DNA in 79.16 % of H. rufipes , 76.92% of B. karelinii and 75% of P. macer of analyzed beetles. The results of the study strongly indicated that in citrus orchards where intensive spraying is eliminated, natural enemies such as Carabid beetles could play an important role in reducing pests such as medfly.

Metabolic reserves of diapausing western cherry fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) pupae in relation to chill duration and post-chill rearing conditions.

How different macronutrients are utilized at various stages of pupal diapause and the effects of winter length on nutrient reserves remain poorly studied for most insects. Western cherry fruit fly, Rhagoletis indifferens (Diptera: Tephritidae), is a specialist on cherries in higher latitudes or elevations in western North America that exhibits a obligate pupal diapause requiring chilling before adult development can occur. We determined the relationship between metabolic reserves and diapause status in R. indifferens pupae, testing the hypotheses that lipids are the primary reserves utilized during diapause and that long periods of warmth deplete these reserves more than periods of cold. Effects of 0- to 20-week durations at 3°C and subsequent exposure to 23°C and 16:8 L:D (warm rearing conditions) for 0 to 7 weeks on lipid, protein, soluble carbohydrates, and glycogen reserves of R. indifferens pupae were determined. During diapause, lipid reserves were the primary source of energy utilized by R. indifferens, while protein and soluble carbohydrates levels were stable throughout diapause and thus less utilized. At post-diapause, glycogen levels fluctuated the most, indicating that lipid reserves were utilized to produce glycogen to support metabolism for adult fly development. Unchilled pupae did not deplete lipid reserves, unlike chilled pupae, likely because unchilled pupae remained in diapause. Rhagoletis indifferens may have evolved a nutrient utilization strategy typical of rigid diapausing insects in higher latitude environments.

Anastrepha striata1 Parasitic Wasps in Guava Crops at Fragmented Landscapes of Nayarit, Mexico

Biological control using native parasitoids is a sustainable alternative to control tephritid flies. We tested whether landscape attributes surrounding guava trees might affect incidence of fruit flies and their parasitoids. From July to September 2019, we collected guava fruit at six locations at Nayarit, México. Pupae obtained from the fruit collected were reared in a laboratory until emergence of adult flies and parasitoids. We combined in situ georeferenced information with 2019 SPOT-7 satellite images to characterize the landscape in circular 500-m buffers. Spearman-rank tests were used to analyze correlation between abundance of Anastrepha striata and parasitoids with the proportion of each soil coverage. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to evaluate the influence of management intensity with abundance of the fruit fly and parasitoids. We collected 15.7 kg of guava fruit from six localities. Anastrepha striata was at all localities sampled. Infestation of fruit was 9.4%, ranging from 0.5 to 35.2 larvae per kilogram. The four parasitic wasp species attacking A. striata were Doryctobracon areolatus, Trichopria drosophilae, Aceratoneuromyia indica, and Leptopilina boulardi and are new records of interactions in the State of Nayarit. The wasps attacked 7.5% of the fruit fly pupae.

Coffea arabica and C. canephora as host plants for fruit flies (Tephritidae) and implications for commercial fruit crop pest management

Because of the economic importance of fruit flies throughout the world, increased knowledge of alternative hosts of these pests is essential for integrated pest management in economically valuable fruit crops grown in regions where other host plant species such as coffee are also commonly cultivated. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the suitability of the cultivated coffee species Coffea arabica L. and Coffea canephora Pierre ex A. Froehner as hosts of fruit fly species in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, where both coffee species are widely grown in close proximity to a variety of economically valuable, and fruit fly susceptible, commercial fruit crops. Mature fruits of both coffee species were collected from 681 farms in 54 municipalities of Espírito Santo to identify the fruit fly species infesting coffee fruits and determine fruit fly infestation levels. Field and laboratory experiments were also conducted to study the relationships between coffee species and fruit fly infestation and development. Field infestation of coffee fruits by fruit flies was higher in C. arabica than in C. canephora (‘Conilon’). A total of 136.7 fruit fly pupae per kg of C. arabica fruits were found, in comparison to 5.4 pupae per kg of C. canephora fruits, and 97.1% of the adult fruit flies reared from coffee fruits emerged from C. arabica fruits. Ceratitis capitata (Wied.) and Anastrepha fraterculus (Wied.) were the most common fruit fly species associated with fruits of both coffee species. The quantity of C. capitata reared from C. arabica fruits (55.2 adults kg−1) was 15.3 times higher than the quantity reared from C. canephora fruits. Coffea arabica was also a much better host for A. fraterculus than C. canephora based on the number of adults reared from fruits. Results of this study indicate that C. arabica is a potential reservoir host of fruit flies, and therefore may play a significant role in fruit fly pest survival when preferred host fruits are lacking in winter months. This is the first study that compares the two major cultivated coffee species as potential hosts and sources of fruit flies, and indicates that integrated pest management (IPM) should be utilized to inhibit dispersal of fruit flies from C. arabica to nearby areas where commercial fruit crops are grown.

The Abundance of Fruit Flies (Bactrocera Spp.) On Some Varieties of Mango from Three Selling Sources

ABSTRACT The fruit fly is one of the detrimental pests to mango production in Indonesia. Information about fruit fly species in the mango production areas is pivotal for analyzing pest risk assessment, developing appropriate standards for plant quarantine treatment, and managing its control programs. This study aims to analyze the fruit fly abundance and composition among three mango cultivars (“Gedong Gincu,” “Cengkir” and “Arumanis”) in Indramayu, Majalengka and Sumedang Regencies, Indonesia. The mangoes were selected randomly by hand collecting from trees, middlemen and traditional vendors. All collected fruits were transferred to the laboratory. The fruits were retained in the cages until the fruit fly imagoes emerged. The results showed that Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), Bactrocera carambolae Drew & Hancock, and an interspecific hybrid of both species were found on mangoes from all study sites. The Bactrocera umbrosa (Fabricius) was merely found on mangoes in Sumedang Regency. The B. dorsalis was the dominant species in all mango cultivars. The nutritional content of mangoes did not correlate with the abundance, species diversity and weight of fruit fly pupae.

The Use of Multiple Unmanned Aircraft Systems as a Swarm to Release Sterile Mexican Fruit Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) Into South Texas Citrus Groves.

Mexican fruit fly Anastrepha ludens (Loew) (Diptera: Tephritidae) is a key economic pest of citrus and represents a quarantine issue along the United States and Mexico Border. In order to respond to this threat, the United States Department of Agriculture produces approximately 175 million sterile Mexican fruit fly pupae per week and releases approximately 150 million adult flies per week via conventional fixed wing aircraft. Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) offer a novel means of releasing sterile insects aerially, can be deployed on short notice in rapid response scenarios, require a small footprint to operate, and offer an alternative means to releasing sterile insects to traditional manned aircraft. UAS, however, are currently limited in two key areas, range and payload capacity. Swarm technology, flying multiple UAS at once, may increase the utility of UAS by distributing payloads and release patterns across multiple UAS. In order to test the viability of swarm technology in the release of sterile insects we conducted multiple mark release recapture experiments over south Texas citrus groves during 2017, 2018, and 2019. The results of this study demonstrate improved release rates from 89.9% (n = 5) of flies released with ca. 0.64% recapture during 2018, to 98.2% (n = 6) released with ca. 0.74% recapture during 2019. These results demonstrate that swarm technology is a viable technique for increasing aerial release capacity and flexibility of sterile insect technique (SIT) programs.

Bio-pesticides alternative diazinon to control peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) (Diptera: Tephritidae)

BackgroundThe bio-pesticide abamectin has been used to control a large variety of insects, including Diptera species, attributed to its high toxicity with virtually no residual effects on treated crops. Its low residual effect ensures the survival of natural enemies and other non-target organisms. Imidacloprid is also widely used for insect pest control due to its potency and high insect selectivity in comparison to mammals. On the other hand, diazinon has been applied extensively to control immature fruit fly stages, mature larvae, pre-pupae, and pupae in soil drench application, thus, affecting the whole agroecosystem, including the natural enemies.ResultsThe toxic effects of abamectin and imidaclopride proposed as a replacement for diazinone in soil treatment, were studied against a laboratory strain of the peach fruit fly (PFF), Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) (Diptera: Tephritidae) under field-caged conditions. Five days old PFF pupae were treated by each pesticide. PFF pupae exhibited different levels of susceptibility to the tested pesticides. Non-significant differences in the pupal mortality rates were obtained between imidacloprid (77.52%), abamectin (77.22%), or diazinon (73.89%). Diazinon and abamectin achieved the highest percentages of total mortality (100%), followed by imidacloprid (98.89%). Real mortality rates were mostly concentration-dependent, while the deformed flies rate depended on the chemical sub-group of insecticide and concentration. Additionally, the biochemical studies revealed different acetylcholinesterase enzyme (AChE) inhibition levels caused by the pesticides on the treated flies sampled at 24, 48, and 72 hours post fly emergence.ConclusionThe bio-insecticide abamectin is an option to diazinon for the control of PFF pupae. Also, soil treatment might be an alternative for PFF pupae control.

Impact of soil texture on conidia movement and residual effect of entomopathogenic fungi applied through irrigation to control fruit-fly pupae in mango orchards

While most measures to control Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) target larvae and adult insects, entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) have shown promising results against pupae in the soil. This work aimed to evaluate the effect of soil texture on conidial transportation, residual effect, and C. capitata mortality caused by two virulent strains of EPF. The strains were applied to soil columns previously packed with a sandy or a clayey Ultisol using simulated drip irrigation. There were no statistical differences in conidial transportation through soil layers between the sandy and the clayey Ultisol. >90% of conidia were retained in first 40 mm. However, Beauveria bassiana BbLCB289 applied in the sandy soil showed higher pupae and adult mortality. Premixing EPF conidia with siloxane 0.05% v/v increased the percolation of conidial suspensions of BbLCB289 in the sandy soil, but no effect was observed on Metarhizium anisopliae MaLCB255. However, it did not interfere with insect mortality but showed an increase in post-emergence mortality in insects from columns treated with MaLCB255. Seemingly, conidial morphology of the Metarhizium strain interacted with soil pore reducing its percolation rate. Overall, the results showed that the residual effect was only slightly affected by strain and soil texture, and ranged between 27 and 34 days. Finally, field application of experimental and commercial EPF strains in a sandy Ultisol resulted in insect mortality between 52 and 68%

Temperature dependent virulence of the entomopathogenic nematodes against immatures of the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis Hendel (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Fruit flies have a great influence on fruit and vegetable industry of Pakistan. Bactrocera dorsalis Hendel (Tephritidae) is a polyphagous pest in large number of fruit and vegetable crops worldwide. Virulence of 4 entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) species, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, H. indica, Steinernema carpocapsae, and S. asiaticum, was evaluated at different temperature degrees (15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 °C) against the immature stages of fruit fly species, B. dorsalis. The tested EPNs species showed a temperature dependent virulence against the fruit fly immatures. All EPNs showed a poor infectivity at the lowest temperature (15 °C) and a high infectivity at the highest temperature (35 °C). In overall, H. bacteriophora performed the best against the fruit fly larvae and pupae at all temperature degrees. At 35 °C, all the EPNs caused more than 95% mortality in fruit fly maggots, but H. bacteriophora and S. carpocapsae performed better than the others. The EPNs infectivity increased with increasing the temperature and exposure time. Similar results were recorded in case of pupae. H. bacteriophora and S. carpocapsae caused more than 70% pupal mortality rates at 35 °C.

Synthesis and validation IPM technology and its economic analysis for bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria)

The field experiment was conducted (2016-18) at Varanasi, Mirzapur and Deoria districts of Uttar Pradesh with a view to study the validation and economic viability of adaptable IPM technology in a farmers’ led approach. The IPM technology that synthesized comprising seed treatment with Trichoderma viride @5 g/kg of seed; installation of cue lure traps (MAT) for fruit flies @10/acre; raking of soil for exposing fruit fly pupae and removal of weeds, need based application of Bacillus thuringiensis @2 g/litre against Sphenerches caffer; need based spraying of Azadirachtin based neem insecticide @10 ml/litre and Imidacloprid 17.8SL @0.33 ml/litre of water for mirid bugs and whiteflies; fungicide Cymoxanyl 8WP+Mancozeb 64WP @2.5 g/litre against downy mildew were found effective in reducing the incidence of pests and minimizing the yield losses. The adoption of IPM technology, apart from lowering the incidence of major pests, also resulted in reducing the number of chemical sprays to 5–7 from 14–18 in non-IPM fields in a season with higher bottle gourd yields of 28, 29.5 and 21.7 tonnes/ha in IPM and 17.5, 18.1 and 10.9 tonnes/ ha in non-IPM fields and with marginally higher cost benefit ratio of 1:1.91, 1:2.05 and 1:2.41 in IPM than 1:1.14, 1:1.19 and 1:11, respectively in non-IPM. On an average, IPM farmers had an average net return of ₹ 145472/ha with C:B ratio of 1:2.09 as compared to the non-IPM farmers with net return of ₹ 20992/ha with a C:B ratio of 1:1.15.

Multispectral imaging for quality control of laboratory‐reared Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera: Tephritidae) pupae

AbstractThe sterile insect technique (SIT) has been widely used to suppress several fruit fly species. In southern Brazil, millions of sterile flies of the South American fruit fly, Anastrepha fraterculus Wiedemann (Dipetra: Tephritidae), will be produced in a mass‐rearing facility called MOSCASUL to suppress wild populations from commercial apple orchards. In spite of standard rearing conditions, the quality of pupal batches can be inconsistent due to various factors. The quantification of poor quality material (e.g. empty pupae, dead pupae or larvae) is necessary to track down rearing issues, and pupal samples must be taken randomly and evaluated individually. To speed up the inspection of pupal samples by replacing the manual testing with the mechanized one, this study assessed a multispectral imaging (MSI) system to distinguish the variations in quality of A. fraterculus pupae and to quantify the variations based on reflectance patterns. Image acquisition and analyses were performed by the VideometerLab4 system on 7‐d‐old pupae by using 19 wavelengths ranging from 375 to 970 nm. The image representing the near infrared wavelength of 880 nm clearly distinguished among high‐quality pupae and the other four classes (i.e. low‐quality pupae, empty pupae, dead pupae and larvae). The blind validation test indicated that the MSI system can classify the fruit fly pupae with high accuracy. Therefore, MSI‐based classification of A. fraterculus pupae can be used for future pupal quality assessments of fruit flies in mass‐rearing facilities.

Applying local entomopathogenic fungi strains to the soil can control Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae) Wiedemann adults

ABSTRACTCeratitis capitata causes direct and indirect damage to fruit production worldwide, reducing productivity and increasing costs. Currently, there is no effective control strategy for fruit fly pupae in the soil. We selected virulent local entomopathogenic fungi (EF) strains for application against pupae of C. capitata and evaluated their effects on the post-emergence survival of adults in laboratory conditions. A cage was designed to study mortality in apparently healthy C. capitata adults that emerged from soils previously treated with EF conidia. This approach allowed the selection of four strains of Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin (Hypocreales: Cordycipitaceae) and two strains of Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschnikoff) Sorokin (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) that were virulent to C. capitata pupae. The application of B. bassiana strains LCB53 and LCB289 caused 44.4 and 60.1% corrected pupae mortality and 83.5 and 88.7% corrected mortality of pupae plus adults, respectively. The median lethal time after adult emergence was 4.0 and 3.5 days for LCB53 and LCB289, respectively. The application of conidial preparations to natural soil reduced insect emergence and the adult life span and represents a promising strategy for fruit fly integrated management.