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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Hilo, Hawaii » Daniel K. Inouye U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center » Tropical Crop and Commodity Protection Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #182655
Title: A NOVEL FEEDING APPARATUS FOR MASS PRODUCTION OF FRUIT FLY PARASITOIDS

Author
item Chang, Chiou
item Mangine, Thomas
item Brown, Charles
item Harris, Ernest
item BAUTISTA, RENATO - HDOA
item Vargas, Roger

Submitted to: Hawaiian Entomological Society Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/16/2005
Publication Date: 2/16/2005
Citation: Chang, C.L., Mangine, T.E., Brown, C.R., Harris, E.J., Bautista, R.C., Vargas, R.I. 2005. A novel feeding apparatus for mass production of fruit fly parasitoids. Pacific Entomological Conference at the 11th annual conference othe the Hawaiian Entomological Society Proceedings on 2/16-17.

Interpretive Summary: Parasitoids of tephritid fruit flies including Fopius arisanus (Sonan), Psyttalia fletcher (sylvestris) are currently mass reared in ARS rearing facility to provide the parasitoids for the Hawaii Area Wide Fruit Fly Integrated Pest Program (HAW-FLYPM) to assist to suppress the fruit fly population using already developed release technologies. Conditions for the nutrition of insect parasitoids are of special value in the success of insect mass rearing programs. Inadequate nutrition usually results in great changes in the metabolism, behavior, and other characteristics of insect vital activity. These changes inevitably depreciate subsequent insect release. An ability to provide optimal nutrition will greatly affect both expenditures for entomophage production as well as colony quality. The main developmental prospects for entomophage mass production for inundative releases are associated with the development of cheap and adequate artificial diets. Variety brand of pure honey diets especially the sodium and cholesterol free pure Bradshaw’s spun honey diet (grade A fancy white pure honey, USA) have been using for decades to rear the abovementioned five species of adult fruit fly parasitoids in ARS Honolulu rearing facility. Despite they were able to survive in these diets, the efficiency and cost have been two critical issues. We herewith developed a novel feeding apparatus and formulation for parasitoid mass rearing to forfeit the disadvantages generated by using honey only diet. The benefits obtained from this apparatus are massive, e.g. easy to handle (no more mess or dripping), reusable (two to three times per preparation), disposable (just throw it away if using paper container), easy to clean (simply peel the dried agar off the container), long sustainability (each dish can last for 2-3 weeks instead of daily replenishing), and low cost (each pack of honey can provide a single cage for 280 days in comparison to less than 14 days.

Technical Abstract: A novel feeding apparatus for mass production of adult parasitoids of fruit flies was developed and replaced for current honey streaking mehtod. Instead of streaking honey over the screen of rearing cage, we prepared the diet in an agar form to promote the cost efficiency goal. This feeding apparatus is composed of resconstituted adult diet (honey and water gelled with agar instead of pure honey) and feeding method (diet was molded and presented to the parasitoid in a disposable container such as paper or petri dish instead of streaking honey on the cage screen).