A Limiting Factor of Sex Attractants of Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae), Verified under Laboratory Conditions

Abstract

At present, sexual attractants mainly control insect populations by killing males. However, the effect of sex attractants may be limited by the mating ability of the attracted insects. The Oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), has a strong reproductive capacity; it brings great losses to agricultural production, which can be controlled by methods using sex attractant methyl eugenol that mainly attracts males. Therefore, we studied the multiple and continuous (as well as consecutive) mating ability of B. dorsalis through behavioral experiments. The results show that male B. dorsalis can mate 11 times on average, with females mating only 1.93 times, and that 10.81% of males mate more than 20 times. The reproductive capacity of male B. dorsalis decreased significantly after four to five instances of continuous mating. In different mating patterns, the reproductive fitness of polyandry is not the highest, rather, interval mating is the best. A limiting factor of the sex attractant effect was revealed in B. dorsalis through behavioral evidence.