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Medfly Population Suppression through Augmentative Release of an Introduced Parasitoid in an Irrigated Multi-Fruit Orchard of Central–Western Argentina
oleh: Lorena Suárez, María Josefina Buonocore Biancheri, Fernando Murúa, Mariano Ordano, Xingeng Wang, Jorge Cancino, Flavio Roberto Mello Garcia, Guillermo Sánchez, Sergio Beltrachini, Luis Ernesto Kulichevsky, Sergio Marcelo Ovruski
Format: | Article |
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Diterbitkan: | MDPI AG 2023-04-01 |
Deskripsi
Biological control through the augmentative release of parasitoids is an important complementary tool that may be incorporated into other strategies for the eradication/eco-friendly control of pest fruit flies. However, not much information is available on the effectiveness of fruit fly parasitoids as biocontrol agents in semi-arid and temperate fruit-growing regions. Therefore, this study evaluated the effect of augmentative releases of the larval parasitoid <i>Diachasmimorpha longicaudata</i> (Ashmead) on <i>Ceratitis capitata</i> (Wiedemann) (medfly) populations over two fruit seasons (2013 and 2014) on a 10 ha irrigated fruit farm in San Juan province, central–western Argentina. The parasitoids were mass reared on irradiated medfly larvae of the Vienna-8 temperature-sensitive lethal genetic sexing strain. About 1692 (±108) parasitoids/ha were released per each of the 13 periods throughout each fruit season. Another similar farm was chosen as a control of non-parasitoid release. The numbers of captured adult flies in food-baited traps and of recovered fly puparia from sentinel fruits were considered the main variables to analyze the effect of parasitoid release on fly population suppression using a generalized least squares model. The results showed a significant decrease (<i>p</i> < 0.05) in the medfly population on the parasitoid release farm when compared to the Control farm, demonstrating the effectiveness of augmentative biological control using this exotic parasitoid. Thus, <i>D. longicaudata</i> could be used in combination with other medfly suppression strategies in the fruit production valleys of San Juan.