Abstract

PERALTA, P.A; MILLA, F.H  and  CLADERA, J.L. Aportes a la Técnica de Insecto Estéril: Una cepa de Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera: Tephritidae) con maduración sexual temprana. RIA. Rev. investig. agropecu. [online]. 2014, vol.40, n.1, pp.38-45. ISSN 1669-2314.

Sexual maturation is a relatively long process in Anastrepha fraterculus males compared to other tephritids. This leads to an increase in the costs to apply the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) because the flies must be kept in laboratory conditions for several days before being released. Our objective was to study the duration of the sexual maturation process in five mutant strain of A. fraterculus and to study the heredability of this trait. We also analyzed the effect of the juvenile hormone (JH) treatment on the sexual maturation of males of some of the mutant strains. To estimate sexual maturity we observed the sexual behavior of males at different ages, after offering them sexually mature virgin females. We found that males from strain #3210 had a significantly shorter pre-copulatory period than the males from the other strain. To study the heredability of this carácter in the mutant strain, we performed crosses between individuals from the #3210 strain and the males and females of the wild-type stock. We observed that the sons of #3210 males matured significantly faster than the descendants of wild-type males, irrespective of the origin of the mother. When the descendants of both sexes were analyzed at 14th generation, we found that these results were repeated. The use of methoprene (JH analog) reduced the duration of the sexual maturation process in both strains. These results encourage the use of the #3210 strain of A. fraterculus both as a model to study the inheritance of genes associated to sexual maturation, and also as a candidate strain for mass rearing and release within the framework of a SIT program against this fruit fly pest.

Keywords : Fruit flies; SIT; Tephritidae; JH; Sexual maturity; Mating time selection; Methoprene.

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