Modifying an artificial diet for mass rearing mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae), using locally available maize meal

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly), Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera:Tephritidae) is well-known as a destructive pest of fruit worldwide. Various controlmethods have been used against this insect. The sterile insect technique (SIT) is usedas an important and successful technological method for controlling or eradicatingthis pest in many countries. A key factor to successfully apply SIT is dependent on theavailability of efficient and economical rearing methods.Artificial insect diets with low cost bulking agents have been of interest to manyresearchers. The present study investigated the use of locally available maize meal asa bulking agent in such diets. Maize meal is used for human consumption (in SouthAfrica) and contains small amounts of protein. This makes the reduction of importedtorula yeast as an ingredient of the diet and source of protein possible, therebyreducing the cost of the diet.The larval development of the Medfly reared on artificial diets was studied insmall and large-scale tests. The effect of the diets on larval production was evaluatedusing pupal recovery, pupal weight, flight ability, sex ratio, fecundity and eggfertility.The results of the small-scale tests showed that the diet containing maize mealcould be used to produce Medfly more economically than the standard Krige diet usedby the ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij Research Institute at Stellenbosch. However, inlarge-scale tests the ingredients quantities of the diets used were not the same as thoseof small scale-tests. The cost of the modified larval diet was not reduced in large-scaletests. This was ascribed to the number of eggs used in the tests to produce one millionof fruit flies. The maize meal with reduced number of eggs require more diet toproduce one million flies therefore, making it more expensive and less viable. Whensimilar amounts of eggs were used, the diet appears to be a suitable alternative as theresult obtained was almost similar to those of the Krige diet.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University