Exposure of sterile Mediterranean fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) males to ginger root oil reduces female remating

Abstract

Females of Ceratitis capitata are facultative polyandrous, with remating more common in laboratory strains rather than wild ones. In the application of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) against this pest, large overflooding ratios of sterile : wild males can increase the remating frequency. Females that mate for the first time with a sterile male tend to remate more frequently. The exposure of sterile males to ginger root oil (GRO) is used in C. capitata SIT programmes to increase the sterile male mating success. Exposing males to an ‘aromatherapy’ with GRO may also increase the remating frequency among wild females. The frequency of wild females remating, number of matings per female, the refractory period between the first and second mating, and the duration of the first and second matings of wild females were determined under laboratory conditions for three mating scenarios that included wild males only or wild males competing with sterile males (either GRO‐treated or non‐treated). Wild females first mated with sterile males exposed to GRO had their remating rate over the following 6 days and the mean number of matings per female reduced in comparison to those first mated with non‐exposed sterile males, from 62.5% to 32.2% and from 3.1 to 1.6 respectively. The remating parameters of females mated with sterile GRO‐exposed males resembled those of females mated with wild males.

Optimum dose of ginger root oil to treat sterile Mediterranean fruit fly males (Diptera: Tephritidae)

“…Thus, we observed that the lowest tested concentration of GRO could be optimally and successfully used for C. capitata aromatherapy in operational SIT programmes. Also, Morelli et al. (2013) working with the same dose (0.1 ml of GRO/m 3 ) found that male exposure to GRO aroma resulted in a reduction of female receptivity after mating, comparable to matings with wild males.…”

Sexual inhibition of female Queensland fruit flies mated by males treated with raspberry ketone supplements as immature adults

“…(), Morelli et al. () exposed mature male medflies to ginger root oil and found that the remating propensity of their mates was halved in comparison with mates of untreated males. While there has been substantial exploration of pre‐release treatments targeting mature adult male fruit flies in terms of mating propensity or competitiveness, much remains to be learned about the effects of development/mating enhancers on post‐copulatory processes that determine how successful a copulation will be in affecting female remating decisions and reproductive success (Pérez‐Staples et al., ).…”

Molecular tools for sterile sperm detection to monitor Ceratitis capitata populations under SIT programmes

“…The mating performance of sterile males includes traits such as the ability to compete in leks to transfer sperm to females effectively and to reduce the risk of females remating . Previous studies had stated the capacity of GRO‐treated sterile C. capitata males successfully to compete with wt males by counting mating pairs in field cages and, under laboratory conditions, by their capacity to avoid remating of females . In this study, the observed reduction in the number of puparia per fruit and the corresponding reduction in the following C. capitata generation suggest that GRO‐treated sterile VIENNA‐8 males were able efficiently to compete in leks, in transferring sperm and in remating under natural conditions (data not shown).…”