Augmentative Biological Control Using Parasitoids for Fruit Fly Management in Brazil

Abstract

The history of classical biological control of fruit flies in Brazil includes two reported attempts in the past 70 years. The first occurred in 1937 when an African species of parasitoid larvae (Tetrastichus giffardianus) was introduced to control the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata and other tephritids. The second occurred in September 1994 when the exotic parasitoid Diachasmimorpha longicaudata, originally from Gainesville, Florida, was introduced by a Brazilian agricultural corporation (EMBRAPA) to evaluate the parasitoid’s potential for the biological control of Anastrepha spp. and Ceratitis capitata. Although there are numerous native Brazilian fruit fly parasitoids, mass rearing of these native species is difficult. Thus, D. longicaudata was chosen due to its specificity for the family Tephritidae and its ease of laboratory rearing. In this paper we review the literature on Brazilian fruit fly biological control and suggest that those tactics can be used on a large scale, together creating a biological barrier to the introduction of new fruit fly populations, reducing the source of outbreaks and the risk of species spread, while decreasing the use of insecticides on fruit destined for domestic and foreign markets.

From laboratory to the field: consistent effects of experience on host location by the fruit fly parasitoid Diachasmimorpha kraussii (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)

“…In our paper we have directly tested and proved the viability of this concept: certainly for the first time in fruit fly parasitoids and, to the best of our knowledge, only for the second time with parasitoids, the first being the work of Hare and colleagues with Aphytis (Hare, ; Hare et al ., ; Hare & Morgan, ) referred to in the Introduction. Fruit fly parasitoid mass rearing for inundative biological control release is an area of ongoing work for tephritid researchers (Spinner et al ., ; Ovruski & Schliserman, ; Garcia & Ricalde, ) and there is intent to explicitly link parasitoid release with sterile fruit fly release (Gurr & Kvedaras, ; Cancino et al ., ). As demonstrated here and elsewhere in the literature (Messing & Jang, ; Ero et al ., ; Ero & Clarke, ; Segura et al ., ), the opiine parasitoids are known to show innate preferences between host fruits.…”

“…The Sterile Insect Technique (=SIT), where tens and even hundreds of millions of mass-reared, sterilized male flies are released weekly to outcompete wild males for females, is well developed against several fruit fly species (Hendrichs & Pereira, 2013). As part of such mass rearing programs, specialist fruit fly parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Opiinae) are also reared and released (Ovruski & Schliserman, 2012;Garcia & Ricalde, 2013), and theoretical predictions suggest that joint inundative releases of sterilized male flies and parasitoids gives more effective control than the sum of the two individual parts (Gurr & Kvedaras, 2010).…”

Isotopic Discrimination and Persistence of the 13C Marker in Adults of Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera: Tephritidae) Brazilian-1 Morphotype

“…Flies that came from Diets I and II were divided into 3 different groups, each containing 1 type of adult diet and water ad libitum. The most common pre-release diets used in operational tests conducted by the Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture staff were: (a) 100% refined cane sugar Caravelas™ (Usina Colombo); (b) a mixture of cane sugar and hydrolyzed yeast Bionis YE MF™ (Biorigin) at a 3:1 rate; and (c) the Gainesville diet (formulated with 1.58 g of agar, 0.05 g of ascorbic acid, 0.005 g of sodium benzoate, 100 mL of citrus honey, and 100 mL of water) (Garcia & Ricalde 2013).…”

Crop domestication, global human-mediated migration, and the unresolved role of geography in pest control

“…Despite originating from the same location, geographic populations of medfly exhibit different population growth rates, suggesting that populations vary in their invasion potential (Diamantidis et al, 2011b). It is important to note that none of the numerous classical biological control projects targeting C. capitata have been successful (Ovruski et al, 2004;Garcia and Ricalde, 2012;Vargas et al, 2012). As a result, area-wide management of the fly through mass releases of sterile insects has been much more effective (Scolari et al, 2014).…”