SpringerLink
Log in

‘Development and assessment of a gel larval diet for economical mass rearing of Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) in Mauritius’

  • Original Research Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Tropical Insect Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In Mauritius, the use of SIT is being investigated as a potential technique to control Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) (Diptera: Tephritidae), a pest of economic importance affecting the horticultural sector. For economic mass rearing of competitive flies, development of an optimum larval diet is essential. Presently, a bagasse-based solid larval diet with many drawbacks is being used. This study aimed to formulate a gel larval diet and to assess its adaptation over five generations. Different gel diets were formulated using different acid concentration, types of yeasts and Guar Gum as the gelling agent. The optimal gel diet formulation was selected and assessed. At F5, a Fried test and a cost analysis was done. The pH of the diet varied with the type of yeast and acid concentration. The pupal volume drops with decrease in pH. The volume of pupae, mean pupal weight and the percentage pupal recovery were affected whilst the adult emergence, percentage fliers and rate of fliers were unaffected. Over the five generations, the gel diet formulation with Torula yeast and 1 ml acid yielded the highest percentage pupal recovery and average pupal weight. The pupal volume, average pupal weight, percentage pupal recovery, percentage adult emergence in the gel diet decreased from parental to F1 and increased after the F3, recovering the initial value. The percentage flight ability and rate of fliers increased from parental generation to the next generations and was sustained during the next 5 generations. This demonstrated that B. zonata reared on gel diet required a minimum of 5 generations for its adaptation. A Fried competitiveness value of (0.56 ± 0.09) and the cost analysis [gel diet (USD 5.41 / Kg) versus solid diet (USD 6.82 /kg)] were obtained. Accordingly, the gel diet with Torula yeast could be recommended as a best alternative for the economical rearing of B. zonata.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability statement

All raw data have been recorded and are available on Minitab worksheet.

References

  • Aquino JCD, Souza CFC, Santos JRDJ, Joachimbravo IS (2016) Adding guarana powder to medfly diets: an alternative for improving the Sterile Insect Technique. Sci Agric 73(3):294–298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caceres C, Hendrichs J, Vreysen MJB (2014) Development and improvement of rearing techniques for fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) of economic importance. Int J Trop Insect Sci 34:S3–S7

  • Chang CL (2017) Laboratory evaluation on a potential birth control diet for fruit fly sterile insect technique (SIT). Pestic Biochem Physiol 140:42–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chang C, Vargas R, Cáceres C, Jang E, Cho I (2009) Development and assessment of a liquid larval diet for Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae). Ann Entomol Soc Am 99. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232679416. Accessed 12 Feb 2020

  • Cohen AC (2014) Insect diets: Science and technology, second edition, CRC Press. Available from: https://www.crcpress.com/Insect-Diets-Science-and-Technology-Second-Edition/Cohen/p/book/9781466591943. Accessed 12 Feb 2020

  • Cohen AC (2004) Insect diets: science and technology 2nd ed. Boca Raton: CRC Press, p 324

  • Costa E, Usall J, Teixidó N, Delgado J, Vinas I (2003) Water activity, temperature, and pH effects on growth of the biocontrol agent Pantoea agglomerans CPA-2. Can J Microbiol 48:1082–1088. https://doi.org/10.1139/w03-001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dias N, Nava D, Smaniotto G, Garcia M, Vargas R (2018) Rearing two fruit flies pests on artificial diet with variable pH. Braz J Biol 79

  • Ekesi S, Mohamed S (2011) Mass rearing and quality control parameters for tephritid fruit flies of economic importance in Africa [online]. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221913323. Accessed 15 Apr 2020

  • FAO/IAEA/USDA (2014) Product quality control for sterile mass-reared and released tephritid fruit flies, Version 6.0. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria

  • FAO-IAEA Website (2021) Sterile insect technique to control emerging global invasion of a drosophilid fruit fly. Available from: https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/sterile-insect-technique-to-control-emerging-global-invasion-of-a-drosophilid-fruit-fly. Accessed 19 Jul 2021

  • Hernandez E, Rivera J, Orozco D, Miguel S, Toledo J (2010) An Artificial Larval Diet for Rearing of Anastrepha striata (Diptera: Tephritidae). Florida Entomol 93

  • Hou Q, Chen EH, Dou W, Wang JJ (2020) Assessment of Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae) diets on adult fecundity and larval development: Insights into employing the sterile insect technique. Available from: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper. Accessed 15 Mar 2020

  • Khan M (2013) Potential of liquid larval diets for mass rearing of Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritidae). Aust J Entomol 52:268–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klassen W, Curtis CF (2005) History of the sterile insect technique. In: Dyck VA, Hendrichs J, Robinson AS (eds) Sterile Insect Technique, principles and practice in area-wide integrated Pest Management, IAEA, Springer, The Netherlands

  • Matavelli C, Carvalho MJ, Martins NE, Mirth CK (2015) Differences in larval nutritional requirements and female oviposition preference reflect the order of fruit colonization of Zaprionus indianus and Drosophila simulans. J Insect Physiol 82:66–74

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Moadeli T, Taylor P, Ponton F (2016) High productivity gel diets for rearing of Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni. J Pest Sci 90:507–520

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moadeli T, Mainali B, Ponton F, Taylor PW (2018) Effects of wheat germ oil concentration in gel larval diets on production and quality of queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Diptera: Tephritidae). J Econ Entomol 111:2288–2297

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Orozco D, Quintero F, Alvarez J (2017) Field cages competitiveness test. FAO/IAEA Interregional Training course manual

  • Paskova M (2007) New larval agar-based diet for laboratory rearing of Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Diptera, Tephritidae). Biologia 62:477–481

  • Rojas M, Morales-Ramos J (2014) Insect diet formulations and methods for rearing insects. Available from: https://www.patents.google.com/patent. Accessed 22 Mar 2020

  • Souza HML, Matioli SR, Souza WN (1988) The adaptation process of Ceratitis capitata to the laboratory analysis of life history traits. Entomol Exp Appl 49:195–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Telang A, Wells MA (2004) The effect of larval and adult nutrition on successful autogenous egg production by a mosquito. J Insect Physiol 50:677–685

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vera MT, Oviedo A, Abraham S, Ruiz J, Mendoza M, Chang CL, Willink E (2014) Development of a larval diet for the South American fruit fly Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera: Tephritidae). Int J Trop Insect Sci 34(S1):S73–S81

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vreysen MJB (2005) Monitoring sterile and wild insects in area-wide integrated pest management programmes. In: Dyck A, Hendrichs J, Robinson AS (eds) Sterile Insect Technique. Principles and Practice in Area-wide Integrated Pest Management. Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp 325–361

  • Woods B, Mcinnis D, Steiner E, Soopaya A, Lindsey J, Lacey I, Virdi A, Fogliani R (2016) Develo** field cage tests to measure mating competitiveness of sterile light brown apple moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in Western Australia. Florida Entomol 99(1)

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the IAEA TC project RAF/5/074. The authors are grateful to Rui Cardoso Pereira, Head of the Insect Pest Control Laboratory and Carlos Cáceres, Entomologist at the Insect Pest Control Laboratory, Seibersdorf for their technical support and guidance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Entomology Division, Ministry of Agroindustry and Food Security, Reduit, Mauritius

    Reena Devi Bhoyroo & Preeaduth Sookar

  2. Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mauritius, Ministry of Agroindustry and Food Security, Reduit, Mauritius

    Sunita Facknath

Authors
  1. Reena Devi Bhoyroo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sunita Facknath
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Preeaduth Sookar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Author 1, author 2 and author 3 conceived research, contributed material. Author 1 conducted experiments, analysed data and conducted statistical analysis. Author 1 wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Reena Devi Bhoyroo.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Additional information

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bhoyroo, R.D., Facknath, S. & Sookar, P. ‘Development and assessment of a gel larval diet for economical mass rearing of Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) in Mauritius’. Int J Trop Insect Sci 42, 2151–2162 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-022-00735-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-022-00735-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation