Effects of different diets on Aedes aegypti adults: improving rearing techniques for sterile insect technique

• Published in: Bulletin of entomological research Vol. 113; no. 6; p. 748
• Main Authors: Barbosa, Aynoanne Leandro, Gois, Glayciane Costa, Dos Santos, Verenna Barros, Pinto, Aline Taiane de Macedo, de Castro Andrade, Bianca Pires, de Souza, Lucas Barbosa, Almeida E Sá, Fernanda Hohana, Virginio, Jair Fernandes, Queiroz, Mário Adriano Ávila
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01-12-2023
• Subjects: Aedes; Animals; Ascorbic Acid; Diet; Female; Insecta; Male; Mosquito Control - methods; Sucrose; copulation propensity; sterile male; survival; flight ability
• ISSN: 1475-2670
• DOI: 10.1017/S0007485323000408

The aim was to evaluate the effect of different energy diets available in adulthood on the longevity, dispersal capacity and sexual performance of
produced under a mass-rearing system. To evaluate the effects of diets in relation to the survival of the adult male insects of
, six treatments were used: sucrose at a concentration of 10%, as a positive control (sack10); starvation, as a negative control (starvation); sucrose at a concentration of 20% associated with 1 g/l of ascorbic acid (sac20vitC); wild honey in a concentration of 10% (honey10); demerara sugar in a 10% concentration (demerara10); and sucrose at a concentration of 20% associated with 1 g/l of ascorbic acid and 0.5 g/l of amino acid proline (sac20vitCPr). Each treatment had 16 cages containing 50 adult males. For the tests of flight ability and propensity to copulation, five treatments were used (saca10; sac20vitC; mel10; demerara10; and sac20vitCPr), with males each for flight ability and females copulated by a single male for copulation propensity. The diet composed of sucrose at a concentration of 20% associated with ascorbic acid, as an antioxidant, improved the survival, flight ability and propensity to copulate in
males under mass-rearing conditions, and may be useful to enhance the performance of sterile males, thus improving the success of sterile insect technique programmes.