Biography
Sheena Francis, 1Javian Harriot, 1Kai Wright, 1,3Dwight Robinson, 4Annika Minott, 5Diana Perez Staples, 6Guillermo Bond
1 Life Sciences, University of the West Indies, Jamaica
2 Caribbean Centre for Research in Biosciences, formally The Natural Products Institute, University of the West Indies, Jamaica
3 Mosquito Control Research Unit, University of the West Indies, Jamaica
4 Caribbean Agriculture Research and Developmental Institute, University of the West Indies, Jamaica
5 Instituto de Biotecnología y Ecología Aplicada, Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico
6 Centro Regional de Investigación en Salud Pública, Mexico
Abstract
The success of sterile insect technique (SIT) programme in mosquitoes is highly dependent on mating copulation between wild females and the lab reared male mosquitoes, that have been irradiated. The irradiation of mosquitoes appears to reduce the overall robustness of the mosquitoes and their ability to compete with unirradiated male mosquitoes for successful mating with female mosquitoes in the wild. Various rearing diets on lab reared mosquitoes were explored to increase fitness and survival of male mosquitoes. Dietary formulation that showed reduced larval mortality with increased male pupal size were further explored to determine whether the diet, and the enhanced gains of pupal size positively enhanced sexual competence in irradiated male mosquitoes. For sexual competence, irradiated males and unirradiated male adult mosquitoes were placed in 16 oz cups with female mosquitoes, at a 1:1 ratio per feeding treatment. Mating in mosquitoes were observed for 1 hour and the number of attempted mating per feeding group was recorded. Successful mating was determined by the presence of sperm in the dissected female spermatheca. Diets that decreased larval mortality and resulted in increased male pupae size, also resulted in increased female-male interactions and successful mating.
Keywords: Irradiation, Diet, Mating, Copulation, Sterile Insect Technique