Rearing two fruit flies pests on artificial diet with variable pH

Abstract

Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are considered the main fruit pests worldwide. In Brazil, two species are predominant: the South American fruit fly, Anastrepha fraterculus and the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata. In this study, we evaluated the effect of artificial diets with variable pH in their larval development and adult performance. The experiments were carried out in the laboratory at 25 ± 2 °C, 70 ± 10% RH and 12:12h (L:D) photoperiod. Semisolid diets with pH values of 6.0, 5.0, 4.0, 3.0, 2.0, 1.5, and 1.0, adjusted by adding hydrochloric acid were tested. Results indicated that the diet with pH 6.0 did not support larval development of both species of fruit fly. Diets with greater acidic pH values did not allow egg, larvae or pupae development and adult reproduction of A. fraterculus. For C. capitata , the pH of artificial diet exerts greater influence compared to A. fraterculus on the duration and viability of the larval stage, number of pupae, sex ratio and longevity of males.

Oviposition Preference and Offspring Performance of the Oriental Fruit Fly Bactrocera Dorsalis (Diptera, Tephritidae) on Eight Host Plants

“…This low survival rate is due to microbiological contamination that influenced by the high pH (5.61 ± 0.08) recorded in this fruit. This hypothesis was supported by Dias et al, (2019) who showed that on diet with pH 6.0, no larval hatching occurred for Anastrepha fraterculus and Ceratitis capitata, possibly due to the rapid microbiological contamination of the diet. However, lemon was the unfavorable fruit for offspring survival of B. dorsalis, with a longer development time (22.16 ± 0.61 days) and a lower percentage of eggs survival to puparia (19.09 ± 11%) as compared to other fruits.…”

“…This is in accordance with oviposition preference results obtained on this fruit. Our results agree the work of Papachristos et al, (2008) who found the longest larval development time of C. capitata on the lemon (C. limon) among 4 citrus species tested.These results can be explained by the fact that lemon has a lower pH compared to other fruits.Several authors were reported that diet with a pH very acid cause an increase of the development time and reduction of immature stages viability of fruit flies (Papachristos et al, 2008;Vera et al, 2014;Dias et al, 2019). However, pH is not the only factor influencing the fruit flies development.…”

“…It has been shown that the physico-chemical characteristics of host fruits play an important role in the fecundity and development of B. dorsalis (Papachristos et al, 2008;Rattanapun et al, 2009). In Senegal, (Diatta et al, 2013) were studied the B. dorsalis preference on five (5) fruit species without evaluated the larval performance of this pest neither the fruit physicochemical parameters that were tested. Thus, this study was therefore undertaken to assess the effect of eight (8) fruit species on the fecundity and the development of the immature stages of B. dorsalis (Diptera, Tephritidae) in relation with the pH and Total soluble solids of those fruits.…”

Chemotaxis and parasitism of the Neotropical fruit fly parasitoidGanaspis pelleranoican be altered by pre‐imaginal and imaginal conditioning to fruit volatiles

“…We suppose that the immature feeding has negatively impacted the viability of the parasitoids, as well as the number of puparia formed and the number of flies emerging. It is known that a host’s food can interfere with both the development of parasitoids (Cicero et al, 2011; Pascacio‐Villafán et al, 2020) and fruit flies, such as A. fraterculus (Dias et al, 2019). Therefore, we hypothesize that the apple diet offered to the larvae for pre‐imaginal conditioning has not favored the viability of either the herbivore or its natural enemy.…”

Biological control of fruit flies: bibliometric analysis on the main biocontrol agents

“…In addition, there is still a need to understand the biology about the agents used for control, and from this to outline study plans in the field so that later on, their insertion in integrated pest management is facilitated (Meirelles et al, 2016). It is also worth emphasizing the importance of applying these works developed in the laboratory to be extended to the field so that the real efficiency of the results obtained when subjected to environmental conditions can be assessed (Dias et al, 2019).…”