In Mauritius, the peach fruit fly,
Bactrocera zonata
Saunders (Diptera: Tephritidae), and the melon fly,
Bactrocera cucurbitae
(Coquillett), are the major pest of fruits and vegetables, respectively. Fruit growers make use of broad-spectrum insecticides to protect their crops from fruit fly attack. This method of fruit fly control is hazardous to the environment and is a threat to beneficial insects. The entomopathogenic fungus,
Metarhizium anisopliae
(Metchnikoff) Sorokin (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae), which was isolated from the soils of Mauritius, was used to investigate whether fungus-treated adult fruit flies could transfer conidia to non-treated flies during mating, and whether fungal infection could have an effect on mating behavior, fecundity, and fertility of the two female fruit fly species. When treated male flies were maintained together with non-treated female flies, they were able to transmit infection to untreated females, resulting in high mortalities. Similarly, fungus-infected female flies mixed with untreated males also transmitted infections to males, also resulting in high mortalities. Infection by
M. anisopliae
also resulted in the reduction of the number of eggs produced by females of
B. cucurbitae.
The results suggest that
M anisopliae
may have potential for use in integrated control programs of
B. zonata
and
B. cucurbitae
using the sterile insect technique in Mauritius.
: An area-wide National Fruit Fly Control Programme (NFFCP) was initiated in 1994, funded by the European Union until 1999 and now fully financed by the Government of Mauritius. The NFFCP targets some 75,000 backyard fruit trees owners mainly. The bait application and male annihilation techniques (BAT & MAT) are currently being applied against the fruit flies attacking fleshy fruits and are targeting selected major fruit growing areas in the north, north-east, central and western parts of the island. Successful control has been achieved using these two techniques as demonstrated by trap catches and fruit samplings. The level of fruit fly damage to fruits has been reduced. Presently, the bait-insecticide mixture is being supplied free of charge to the public. The current status of the area-wide suppression programme is such that continuous use of BAT/MAT is a never ending process and as such is not viable. In this context, a TC project on 'Feasibility studies for integrated use of sterile insect technique for areawide tephritid fruit fly control' . Studies are also being carried out on mass rearing of the peach fruit fly for small scale trials on SIT so as to eventually integrate this control method in our area-wide control programme.
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