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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Hilo, Hawaii » Daniel K. Inouye U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center » Tropical Crop and Commodity Protection Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #306509

Title: Effect of host Bactrocera dorsalis sex on yield and quality of the Parasitoid Fopius arisanus

Author
item Manoukis, Nicholas
item Geib, Scott
item Vargas, Roger

Submitted to: BioControl
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/19/2014
Publication Date: 8/20/2014
Citation: Manoukis, N., Geib, S.M., Vargas, R.I. 2014. Effect of host Bactrocera dorsalis sex on yield and quality of the Parasitoid Fopius arisanus. Biocontrol. 59(4):395-402.

Interpretive Summary: When the fruit fly parasitoid Fopius arisanus is tranferred to novel parts of the world as a biological control agent, the fruit fly used to rear the parasite is often transported together with it. If the fruit fly host is not established in the area receiving the parasitoid, it can pose a danger: introducing the fruit fly in the process of moving the parasitoid. To mitigate this potential problem, one approach is to use a genetic sexting train (GSS) of the fruit fly and only transfer hosts of a single sex, so that any unparasitized fruit flies would be unable to become established. This study examines the survival and reproductive attributes of parasitoids from male and female host flies using a GSS and compares these with the same for a control colony strain. We find that the parasitoids from the sexing strain are comparable to those from the control, though we observed differences in the survivorship of F1 parasites from individuals emerging from the GSS and the control strain.

Technical Abstract: This study examines the effect of host Bactrocera dorsalis sex on performance of the parasitoid Fopius arisanus to enable use of a genetic sexing strain (GSS) to transfer this parasitoid to regions where B.dorsalis is not established. Experiments on the sex ratio and yield of F. arisanus did not indicate a significant difference between the two sexes of the GSS, or between GSS and a standard colony strain. F1 parasitoids of individuals that emerged from male and female hosts of the GSS was similar in percent parasitization on colony eggs,though both GSS groups had lower hatching rates compared with the standard colony strain. Survivorship of F1 parasitoids with parents from female hosts was significantly greater than for those from male hosts. Using GSS to improve the safety of parasitoid shipments is suggested to be viable, but there may be biological effects of host sex on F1 parasitoid fitness.