Spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae), was monitored from 2010 to 2014 in 314-828 sites located in interior fruit-growing regions of OR and WA, United States, and BC, Canada, using traps baited with apple cider vinegar or sugar-water-yeast. Seasonal population dynamics and sex ratios were summarized for berry, cherry, stone fruit, grape, non-crop host plants, non-host sites, and for conventional IPM, certified organic, backyard, and feral sites, by region and year. Overwintering was detected in all regions and years, despite winter temperatures below -17°C. A spatial analysis was conducted using a Geographic Information System (GIS), daily weather data, geomorphometric measures of terrain, distance to water, and other variables, at each site. Overwintering success at a site, measured as Julian week of first capture of D. suzukii, was significantly related (R2 = 0.49) in cherry habitats to year, agronomic treatment, and number of winter days with temperatures>-5°C. In berry, cherry, stone fruit and grape habitats, 2011-2014, it was significantly related (R2 = 0.42) to year, agronomic treatment, the logarithm of peak population of D. suzukii in the prior autumn, latitude, elevation, and topographic wetness index. The results show that D. suzukii has adapted to exploit a succession of irrigated crops and feral habitats in mixed landscapes of a semi-arid region with cold winters and hot dry summers, and are shaping strategies for pest management and for biological control.

Mating competitiveness and pheromone trap catches of mass-reared, male codling moth, Cydia pomonella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), from the Osoyoos, British Columbia, Canada, massrearing facility operated by the Okanagan-Kootenay Sterile Insect Release Board, were compared to wild males using mark-release-recapture field experiments in spring, summer, and autumn at Summerland, British Columbia. In spring, significantly more wild diapause males mated with tethered, wild females than did non-irradiated (0 Gy) or irradiated (100 or 250 Gy) non-diapause, mass-reared males. A lower dose of radiation did not improve mating competitiveness, nor catches of mass-reared males released in spring. Median mating time for wild males was approximately 45 min earlier than mass-reared males with most wild males (70.5%) mating before sunset and mass-reared males mating at or shortly after sunset in spring. Superior mating competitiveness of wild males in spring was mirrored by greater recapture rates in pheromone-baited traps. In summer, mating competitiveness of mass-reared moths improved relative to wild males and there was a significant inverse relationship between radiation dose (0, 100, and 250 Gy) and competitiveness of mass-reared males. In autumn, untreated, wild males were significantly more responsive to pheromone traps than non-diapausing mass-reared males receiving 250 Gy of radiation. Mass-reared males, subjected to diapause-inducing conditions as larvae and emerged from diapause before this irradiation treatment, were recaptured significantly more often than similarly irradiated, non-diapause, mass-reared males, but not more than untreated, diapause wild males. We hypothesize that differences between wild and mass-reared males in daily timing or speed of responses to natural or synthetic pheromone sources under montane weather patterns typical of spring in British Columbia may partially explain poor activity of sterile males, and low sterile : wild overflooding ratios during spring when measured using pheromone traps by the sterile insect release programme in British Columbia.

The advent of novel genetic methods has led to renewed interest in the sterile insect technique (SIT) for management of insect pests, owing to applications in mass rearing and in the production of sterile offspring without use of irradiation. An area-wide management programme for codling moth, Cydia pomonella, has employed the SIT and other management practices over a large area (3395 to 7331 ha) of orchards and neighbouring urban, public, or First Nations lands in British Columbia, Canada, for 25 years. This project is the first to employ the SIT for C. pomonella, and the longest-running application of area-wide techniques for its control, anywhere. It was derived from basic research and applied trials from the 1960s onwards. Many biological challenges were overcome, and lessons learnt, in transferring from small- to large-scale applications of mass rearing and the SIT, with particular regard to Lepidoptera. Research has proven essential to identifying, if not resolving, issues that threaten the implementation and success of any such programme. The major challenges encountered, and the resulting research, are reviewed, as well as future directions. Recommendations are given for application of the SIT as part of any area-wide management programme for C. pomonella.

Microsatellites are known to be a common feature of eukaryote genomes. Here we investigate the presence of microsatellite sequences in the genome of two mite species, Tetranychus urticae and Amblyseius fallacis, based on screening of both mite genomic libraries and Southern blots of these mites that we compare to two vertebrates. No signal with GT15 or a faint smear with CT10 were obtained in Southern analysis for the two mites, whereas both probes strongly bound with vertebrate DNA. Genomic libraries constructed in plasmid and lambda vectors were probed and only two CT microsatellites were isolated for T. urticae. Among eight trinucleotides probes tested, the strongest hybridization signal was detected for T. urticae with CAT and TGA probes. These two classes of repeats were also the most represented in genomic library screenings. However, only sequences with short numbers of units could be detected (