Mating Competitiveness of Wild and Laboratory Mass-Reared Medflies: Effect of Male Size

Abstract

For the successful implementation of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) it is of paramount importance to produce insects that will compete for mates with the wild ones. Colonization and unnatural conditions for mass rearing, can introduce drastically different and intense selection pressures on the sexual behavior of the artificially-reared populations (e.g. Bush et al., 1976; Leppla et al., 1983). Tests have been developed to evaluate the quality of laboratory mass reared fruit flies (Chambers et al., 1983 and references therein). However, the extensive application of the SIT against fruit flies has shown that these tests require more refinement in the context of sexual selection theory (Burk and Calkins, 1983).