Adaptation to and Small-Scale Rearing of Invasive Fruit Fly <I>Bactrocera invadens</I> (Diptera: Tephritidae) on Artificial Diet

Abstract

Larval rearing of Bactrocera invadens Drew, Tsuruta & White (Diptera: Tephritidae) on articial diet is described. The adaptation process for this insect, when moved from whole mango, Mangifera indica L., fruit rearing to articial diet based on wheat bran, took between three and ve generations to reach the plateau of quality control parameters observed for rearing the insect on whole mango fruit. Small-scale rearing on wheat, Triticum aestivum L.-, or carrot, Daucus corata-based diet revealed signicantly higher pupal recovery for ies reared on the wheat-based articial diet (68.8%) compared with the carrot-based diet (58.2%). Weekly production of puparia was 3,966.8 on wheatand 3,012.1 on carrot-based diet. Other quality control parameters, including pupal weight, adult emergence, ight ability, fecundity, and fertility did not differ signicantly between the two articial rearing media tested.