Mass-rearing and sterilisation alter mating behaviour of male Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritidae)

2005 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher W Weldon
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliano Morimoto ◽  
Binh Nguyen ◽  
Shabnam T. Tabrizi ◽  
Ida Lundbäck ◽  
Phillip W. Taylor ◽  
...  

Abstract Backround Commensal microbes can promote survival and growth of developing insects, and have important fitness implications in adulthood. Insect larvae can acquire commensal microbes through two main routes: by vertical acquisition from maternal deposition of microbes on the eggshells and by horizontal acquisition from the environment where the larvae develop. To date, however, little is known about how microbes acquired through these different routes interact to shape insect development. In the present study, we investigated how vertically and horizontally acquired microbiota influence larval foraging behaviour, development time to pupation and pupal production in the Queensland fruit fly (‘Qfly’), Bactrocera tryoni. Results Both vertically and horizontally acquired microbiota were required to maximise pupal production in Qfly. Moreover, larvae exposed to both vertically and horizontally acquired microbiota pupated sooner than those exposed to no microbiota, or only to horizontally acquired microbiota. Larval foraging behaviour was also influenced by both vertically and horizontally acquired microbiota. Larvae from treatments exposed to neither vertically nor horizontally acquired microbiota spent more time overall on foraging patches than did larvae of other treatments, and most notably had greater preference for diets with extreme protein or sugar compositions. Conclusion The integrity of the microbiota early in life is important for larval foraging behaviour, development time to pupation, and pupal production in Qflies. These findings highlight the complexity of microbial relations in this species, and provide insights to the importance of exposure to microbial communities during laboratory- or mass-rearing of tephritid fruit flies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (S2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Alexander Shuttleworth ◽  
Mohammed Abul Monjur Khan ◽  
Terrence Osborne ◽  
Damian Collins ◽  
Mukesh Srivastava ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera, Tephritidae) is the most significant insect pest of Australian horticulture. Bactrocera tryoni is controlled using a range of tools including the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT). Mass-rearing and irradiation of pupae in SIT can reduce the fitness and quality of the released sterile insects. Studies have also showed reduced microbial gut diversity in domesticated versus wild tephritids. Results Transmission electron microscopy confirmed the presence of the bacterial isolates in the mid-gut of mass-reared larvae, and plate counts from individual larval guts showed increased numbers of bacteria in supplemented larvae. Several developmental and fitness parameters were tested including larval development time (egg-hatch to pupation), pupal weight, emergence, flight ability, sex-ratio, and time to adult eclosion (egg-hatch to adult eclosion). Enterobacter sp. and Asaia sp. shortened larval development time, while this was delayed by Lactobacillus sp., Leuconostoc sp. and a blend of all four bacteria. The mean time from egg hatch to adult eclosion was significantly reduced by Leuconostoc sp. and the blend for males and females, indicating that the individual bacterium and consortium affect flies differently depending on the life stage (larval or pupal). There was no impact of bacterial supplemented larvae on pupal weight, emergence, flight ability, or sex ratio. Conclusions Our findings show that bacteria fed to the larval stage of B. tryoni can impart fitness advantages, but the selection of probiotic strains (individual or a consortium) is key, as each have varying effects on the host. Bacteria added to the larval diet particularly Leuconostoc sp. and the blend have the capacity to reduce costs and increase the number of flies produced in mass-rearing facilities by reducing time to adult eclosion by 1.3 and 0.8 mean days for males, and 1.2 and 0.8 mean days for females.


2012 ◽  
Vol 105 (3) ◽  
pp. 1051-1056 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. Gilchrist ◽  
E. C. Cameron ◽  
J. A. Sved ◽  
A. W. Meats

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deane N. Woruba ◽  
Jennifer L. Morrow ◽  
Olivia L. Reynolds ◽  
Toni A. Chapman ◽  
Damian P. Collins ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Mass-rearing, domestication and gamma irradiation of tephritid fruit flies used in sterile insect technique (SIT) programmes can negatively impact fly quality and performance. Symbiotic bacteria supplied as probiotics to mass-reared fruit flies may help to overcome some of these issues. However, the effects of tephritid ontogeny, sex, diet and irradiation on their microbiota are not well known. Results We have used next-generation sequencing to characterise the bacterial community composition and structure within Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt), by generating 16S rRNA gene amplicon libraries derived from the guts of 58 individual teneral and mature, female and male, sterile and fertile adult flies reared on artificial larval diets in a laboratory or mass-rearing environment, and fed either a full adult diet (i.e. sugar and yeast hydrolysate) or a sugar only adult diet. Overall, the amplicon sequence read volume in tenerals was low and smaller than in mature adult flies. Operational taxonomic units (OTUs), belonging to the families Enterobacteriaceae (8 OTUs) and Acetobacteraceae (1 OTU) were most prevalent. Enterobacteriaceae dominated laboratory-reared tenerals from a colony fed a carrot-based larval diet, while Acetobacteraceae dominated mass-reared tenerals from a production facility colony fed a lucerne chaff based larval diet. As adult flies matured, Enterobacteriaceae became dominant irrespective of larval origin. The inclusion of yeast in the adult diet strengthened this shift away from Acetobacteraceae towards Enterobacteriaceae. Interestingly, irradiation increased 16S rRNA gene sequence read volume. Conclusions Our findings suggest that bacterial populations in fruit flies experience significant bottlenecks during metamorphosis. Gut bacteria in teneral flies were less abundant and less diverse, and impacted by colony origin. In contrast, mature adult flies had selectively increased abundances for some gut bacteria, or acquired these bacteria from the adult diet and environment. Furthermore, irradiation augmented bacterial abundance in mature flies. This implies that either some gut bacteria were compensating for damage caused by irradiation or irradiated flies had lost their ability to regulate bacterial load. Our findings suggest that the adult stage prior to sexual maturity may be ideal to target for probiotic manipulation of fly microbiota to increase fly performance in SIT programmes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 112 (5) ◽  
pp. 2278-2286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bishwo P Mainali ◽  
Tahereh Moadeli ◽  
Fleur Ponton ◽  
Phillip W Taylor

Abstract Sterile insect technique (SIT) for Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni Froggatt, Australia’s most economically damaging fruit fly species, is currently undergoing a major renewal and expansion. SIT relies on efficient and economical mass-rearing procedures that produce high-quality flies. Two solid larval diets, carrot and lucerne chaff, have traditionally been used to rear Queensland fruit fly. Recently, a gel larval diet has been developed to eliminate biological bulking agents from the mass-rearing process, but to date, there has been no direct comparison of gel larval diet with traditional solid diets. In the present study, the performance of flies reared on gel larval diet was compared with the performance of flies reared on carrot and lucerne chaff diets. In addition, to investigate whether the performance of reared flies depends on ancestral diet as well as tested diet, we sourced eggs from a colony maintained on carrot diet and from a colony maintained on a lucerne chaff diet. Overall, the gel diet was as good or better than the solid diets in all quality control parameters, including, egg–larval duration, pupal number, pupal recovery, adult emergence, percentage of fliers, and rate of fliers. Of note, larvae developed faster and pupated more synchronously on the gel diet than on either of the solid diets. At the loading densities used, gel and carrot diets produced less waste than lucerne chaff diet. Gel diets offer a rearing solution for Queensland fruit fly that eliminates biological bulking agents and yields faster and more synchronous larval development without compromising productivity or quality.


2016 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 153-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.M. Kean

In February 2015 an established population of the Queensland fruit fly (Qfly Bactrocera tryoni) was detected in Grey Lynn Auckland It was questionable whether Qfly might successfully overwinter in Auckland and how trap efficacy and mating behaviour would be affected by winter conditions During the official biosecurity response to eradicate Qfly these questions were addressed using published Qfly models that had been developed and parameterised from biological data from its native range A model for cold acclimatisation suggested that Auckland winters would not be sufficiently cold to cause significant mortality of adult Qfly but substantial cold mortality might occur in more southern locations The temperature requirement for mating suggested mating would be relatively rare from June to October and two models for relative trap efficacy suggested that traps would be relatively ineffective until late spring (OctoberNovember) The Ministry for Primary Industrys biosecurity response was successful with no detection of Qfly after March 2015 and eradication formally declared in December 2015


2010 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
O.L. Reynolds ◽  
B.A. Orchard

AbstractControl of Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritidae), populations or outbreaks may be achieved through the mass-rearing and inundative release of sterile B. tryoni. An alternative release method is to release chilled adult sterile fruit flies to decrease packaging and transport requirements and potentially improve release efficiencies. Two trials were conducted to determine the effect of chilling on the performance of two separate batches of adult B. tryoni, fed either a protein and sucrose diet or sucrose only diet. The first trial compared chill times of 0, 0.5, 2 and 4 h; the second trial compared chill times of 0, 2, 4, 8 and 24 h. Overall, there was little or no affect of chilling on the recovery, longevity and flight ability of B. tryoni chilled at 4°C. Recovery time can take up to 15 min for chilled adult flies. There was no effect of chill time on longevity although females generally had greater longevity on either diet compared with males. Propensity for flight was not adversely affected by chilling at the lower chill times in trial 1; however, in trial 2, adults fed on a protein and sucrose diet had a decreased tendency for flight as the chilling time increased. Fly body size did not affect recovery times although the smaller adult B. tryoni in trial 1 had significantly reduced longevity compared to the larger adults in trial 2. Implications of these findings for B. tryoni SIT are discussed.


2013 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Rao ◽  
S. Aguilar-Argüello ◽  
P. Montoya ◽  
F. Díaz-Fleischer

AbstractFruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are major pests worldwide. The sterile insect technique, where millions of flies are reared, sterilized by irradiation and then released, is one of the most successful and ecologically friendly methods of controlling populations of these pests. The mating behaviour of irradiated and non-irradiated flies has been compared in earlier studies, but there has been little attention paid to the anti-predator behaviour of mass-reared flies, especially with respect to wild flies. Tephritid flies perform a supination display to their jumping spider predators in order to deter attacks. In this study, we evaluated the possibility of using this display to determine the anti-predator capabilities of mass-reared irradiated, non-irradiated flies, and wild flies. We used an arena setup and observed bouts between jumping spiders (Phidippus audax Hentz) and male Mexican fruit flies (Anastrepha ludens Loew). We show that although all flies performed a supination display to their predator, wild flies were more likely to perform a display and were significantly more successful in avoiding attack than mass-reared flies. We suggest that this interaction can be used to develop a rapid realistic method of quality control in evaluating anti-predator abilities of mass-reared fruit flies.


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