Effect ofMetarhizium anisopliaeon the Fertility and Fecundity of Two Species of Fruit Flies and Horizontal Transmission of Mycotic Infection

Abstract

: 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.

The infection efficacy ofMetarhiziumstrains (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) against the Queensland fruit flyBactrocera tryoni(Diptera: Tephritidae)

“…The Metarhizium pathogenicity (predominately Metarhizium anisopliae ) against various fruit fly species have been reported in other studies, including Bactrocera zonata ( Ibrahim et al 2014 , Gul et al 2015 , Hussein et al 2018 , Ahmad et al 2022 , El-Gendy et al 2022 ), Bactrocera cucurbitae ( Sookar et al 2014 , Hamzah et al 2021 , Iqbal et al 2021 ), Bactrocera dorsalis ( Faye et al 2021 , Melesse and Ferdu 2021 , Wang et al 2021 , Wangkeeree and Suwanchaisri 2022 ), and Ceratitis capitata ( Castillo et al 2000 , Ekesi et al 2002 , Quesada-Moraga et al 2006 , Beris et al 2013 , Soliman et al 2020 ), with limited research focus on Qfly fungal entomopathogens ( Carswell et al 1998 ). The strains used in the current study originated from local banana farm soils, and local adaption by these strains may facilitate prolonged control due to climate suitability ( McGuire and Northfield 2021 ).…”

Fruit fly management research: A systematic review of monitoring and control tactics in the world

“…In field tests, the infestation of this species in cherry trees was reduced by 65% using foliar applications of Beauveria bassiana (Daniel and Wyss, 2010). Promising results were obtained for the control of C. capitata (Castillo et al, 2000;Toledo et al, 2017;Yousef et al, 2014), Bactrocera oleae (Gmelin) (Yousef et al, 2013) and Z. cucurbitae (Sookar et al, 2014) using entomophatogenic fungi species.…”

“…The entomopathogenic fungi, M. anisopliae, was used to investigate horizontal transmission capacity among fruit fly adults during mating. The results showed the capacity of transmission from treated flies to non-treated flies, resulting in high mortality and the reduction of the number of eggs produced by fruit fly females (Quesada-Moraga et al, 2008;Sookar et al, 2014). The results of pathogenicity indicate that entomopathogenic fungi could be utilized with different modes of application, such as cover or bait spray (Beris et al, 2013) or infection traps (Navarro-Llopis et al, 2015).…”