Ginger root oil increases mating competitiveness of sterile Mediterranean fruit fly (Diptera:Tephritidae) in Western Australia

Abstract

The exposure of sterile male Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) to the aroma of essential oil derived from ginger root Zingiber officinale Roscoe (GRO) has been shown in field cage trials to increase their mating success. This field cage study compared the mating performance of mass reared sterile Mediterranean fruit fly males prepared for ground release programmes under four different post‐irradiation systems, two of which involved exposure of the flies to GRO aroma. In the first system, irradiated pupae were placed into non‐vented 5‐L paper tubs, individually aromatized by 20 μl of GRO (4 ml/m3) for 96–120 h until the adults were 2–3 days old. In the second system, irradiated pupae were placed in vented 5‐L paper tubs, exposed for 24 h in a GRO aromatized room (0.5 ml/m3) when the adults were 3 days old and contained until required for mating tests at 5 days old. The third and fourth systems were the same as the first two systems respectively, except that the flies were not exposed to GRO aroma. Significant differences in mating success were found among treatments. The exposure of 2 to 3‐day old flies to GRO aroma improved mating performance slightly compared with equivalent non‐exposed flies, but it was still below the minimum value accepted under international standards, while 27% of unexposed 5‐day‐old sterile males mated and had competitiveness (Fried value 0.38) slightly above this minimum level. GRO exposed 5‐day‐old flies had the highest mating percentage (67%) and a level of competitiveness (Fried value 1.81) based on induced sterility above that of wild flies (Fried value 1). The results indicate that the effectiveness of sterile male ground release programmes can be increased significantly by releasing 5‐day‐old sterile males that have been exposed to GRO in an entirely aromatized adult fly holding room.

Raspberry ketone accelerates sexual maturation and improves mating performance of sterile male Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt)

“…Feeding methyl eugenol not only improved the mating competitiveness of sterile male B. dorsalis , but also improved the level of egg sterility in mated wild females . Another phytochemical, ginger root oil increased mating competitiveness of sterile C. capitata and induced greater sterility to wild flies . The above findings suggests that pre‐release feeding on phytochemicals may allow for a reduction in the number of sterile flies that are produced and released due to their improved mating performance.…”

Field evaluation of the relative attractiveness of enriched ginger root oil (EGO)lure and trimedlure for African Ceratitis species (Diptera: Tephritidae)

“…Its commercial use was hampered by expensive and impractical extraction procedures but ginger root (Zingiber officinalis Roscoe) oil has been shown to be an inexpensive alternative source of alpha-copaene (Shelly and Pahio 2002). Recently, it proved to be a male enhancing component because exposure to its aroma increases the mating success of sterile male medflies (Shelly 2001;Shelly et al 2004) and is now applied as aromatherapy to increase the competitiveness of sterile males in SIT (Shelly et al 2007;Steiner et al 2011). It also increases the competitiveness of male Natal fruit flies, Ceratitis rosa (Quilici et al 2011).…”

Improving sterile male performance in support of programmes integrating the sterile insect technique against fruit flies

“…Positive effects of OO in protein-sugar diet were found, but no effects in the sugar-only diet Improving sterile male performance in fruit fly SIT R. Pereira et al The cost-effective GRO exposure to sterile males established and now in operational used in a number of C. capitata SIT action programmes (Shelly et al 2007b(Shelly et al ,c, 2008aParanhos et al 2008Paranhos et al , 2013JuanBlasco et al 2013;Silva et al 2013;Steiner et al 2013) sexing strains, the release of older males is preferable resulting in more flies reaching mating age in the field ) Species with longer pre-copulatory period would benefit more from longer pre-release holding periods Pereira et al 2013) Design for a fly holding system that optimizes methyl eugenol feeding and fly holding in space and time was completed for Bactrocera dorsalis. Preliminary tests on interactions of males with the semiochemical feeding structure were tested in a small-scale prototype (Tan and Tan 2013b) Comparison of males from standard conditions with males pre-conditioned to specific field conditions Pre-conditioning of sterile males to specific field conditions was assessed in Bactrocera tryoni and C. capitata for temperature Effects of cold knockdown Effect of cold knockdown varies with C. capitata density.…”

“…Ginger root oil (GRO)-exposed males exhibit higher rates of sexual signalling compared with unexposed C. capitata males (Shelly et al 2004b(Shelly et al , 2007a(Shelly et al , 2010bPapadopoulos et al 2006;Briceñ o et al 2007;Juan-Blasco et al 2013;Paranhos et al 2013;Steiner et al 2013) GRO-exposed sterile males exhibit during sexual courtship the same wing beat duration as wild males, and this was shorter than for unexposed sterile males ) Exposure to orange oils (OO) and its components increased sexual signalling of males, and this effect was more pronounced in protein-fed C. capitata flies (Katsoyannos et al 2005;Papadopoulos et al 2006;Kouloussis et al 2013) Identification of active compounds other than GRO and their effects on sexual performance in C. capitata Exposure to fruits of five citrus species revealed that sweet oranges conferred the highest increase in male mating performance of C. capitata males. Exposures to commercial citrus oils were found to be similarly effective Positive effect of OO components (limonene, b-myrcene, and linalool) was found in protein/sugar-fed males, but not in sugar-only-fed males A mixture of limonene, b-myrcene, linalool, a-pinene and geraniol (1:1:1:1:1) was proven to be very effective for both wild and sterile C. capitata males ) Attractiveness of GRO and OO to C. rosa…”

“…This article was published online on 28 November 2011. The references for Bjeliš et al (2013), Gómez et al (2013), Haq and Hendrichs (2013), Haq et al (2013), Ji et al (2013), Juan‐Blasco et al (2013), Kouloussis et al (2013), Liedo et al (2013), McInnis et al (2013), Morelli et al (2013), Obra and Resilva (2013), Orankanok et al (2013), Paranhos et al (2013), Pereira et al (2013), Quilici et al (2013), Segura et al (2013), Shelly et al (2013), Silva et al (2013), Sookar et al (2013), Steiner et al (2013), Tan and Tan (2013a,b), Taylor et al (2013), Teal et al (2013), Utgés et al (2013), Vera et al (2013) and Yuval et al (2013) have now been updated to show the correct citation details for J. Appl. Entomol.…”