27 articles in this issue
Marc J. B. Vreysen, Waldemar Klassen, James E. Carpenter
Lepidopteran species are amongst the most damaging pests of food and fiber crops world-wide. Pest lepidopterans are often managed injudiciously by spraying crops with large amounts of broad-spectrum—and often—persistent insecticides. In view of increased ... see more
Rakesh K. Seth, Zubeda Khan, Dev K. Rao, Mahtab Zarin
Sperm behavior represents one of the attributes in the radiogenetic technique called inherited sterility crucial for its effectiveness to suppress populations of Spodoptera litura (F.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Quantitative and qualitative assessments of ... see more
The dose of radiation applied to the Oriental leafworm (also known as the common cutworm), Spodoptera litura (F.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) for use in inherited sterility (IS) sterility programs must not materially reduce the quality and competitiveness of... see more
Linke Potgieter, Jan H. Van Vuuren, Des E. Conlong
A user-friendly simulation tool for determining the impact of the sterile insect technique/inherited sterility technique (SIT/IS) on populations of the African sugarcane stalk borer, Eldana saccharina Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) is described in this p... see more
Robert L. Brown, Mailee Stanbury, Ashraf M. El-Sayed, John Laban, Ruth Butler, David M. Suckling
Irradiation is used to provide sterile insects from mass-rearing facilities, but irradiation can degrade insect quality. A system is described that uses repeatable pheromone stimuli to activate male moths housed with clean airflow in a commercially availa... see more
Bill Woods, Donald McInnis, Ernie Steiner, Alven Soopaya, Jeremy Lindsey, Ian Lacey, Amandip Virdi, Roselia Fogliani
The Australian light brown apple moth (LBAM) (Epiphyas postvittana) (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is a pest in Australia, New Zealand and now California (USA). The use of sterile insects in combination with mating disruption and biological insectici... see more
Suk Ling Wee, Hyun Woo Oh, Kye Chung Park
Plant chemical signals are important olfactory cues for the survival and reproduction of phytophagous insects. The diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella L. (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) is a Brassica spp. (Brassicales: Brassicaceae) specialist pest, with mos... see more
Suk Ling Wee
Knowledge of host chemical volatiles has tremendously informed the fundamental understanding of plant-insect interactions as well as revealed opportunities for the creative use of plant-derived chemicals in the food and flavor industries and in insect pes... see more
Rebecca Hood-Nowotny, Ally Harari, Rakesh K. Seth, Suk Ling Wee, Des E. Conlong, David M. Suckling, Bill Woods, Kaouthar Lebdi-Grissa, Gregory Simmons, James E. Carpenter
In this study we identified a number of moth (Lepidoptera) species that are potential targets for the sterile insect technique (SIT), and we assessed the feasibility of using stable isotope signatures as markers to distinguish mass-reared from wild moth s... see more
Rebecca Hood-Nowotny, Leo Mayr, Nabil Saad, Rakesh K. Seth, Goggy Davidowitz, Gregory Simmons
Measurement of natural stable isotope signatures of insects has proven to be a useful method in determining their natal origin, feeding strategies and mating behavior, and has spawned a new discipline of insect isotope forensics. However the complexity of... see more
Nancy Barradas-Juanz, Francisco Díaz-Fleischer, Pablo Montoya, Ana Dorantes, Diana Pérez-Staples
A simplified and improved rearing system was developed for the mahogany shoot borer, Hypsipyla grandella (Zeller) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) in the laboratory. Improvements were made in neonate rearing, larval containers, adult mating cages and the diet, ma... see more
Hadass Steinitz, Adi Sadeh, Martin Tremmel, Ally R. Harari
The sterile insect technique (SIT) requires the release of a large number of irradiated moths in the infested crop area targeted for suppression or eradication. Irradiated males must compete strongly with wild males for mating with conspecific wild female... see more
Daleen Stenekamp, Ken Pringle, Matthew Addison
Genetically modified maize contains an insecticidal gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is an important component in integrated pest management strategies against lepidopteran pests of maize. A project is being implemented in t... see more
Stephen D. Hight, James E. Carpenter
A bi-national program was established by Mexico and the United States to mitigate the threat of the cactus moth, Cactoblastis cactorum (Berg) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)—an invasive herbivore from South America—to native Opuntia spp. (Caryophyllales: Cactace... see more
Nevill Boersma, James E. Carpenter
The sterile insect technique (SIT) is as an important component to the area-wide integrated management of the false codling moth, Thaumatotibia leucotreta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), which was successfully implemented in the Western Cape region ... see more
Xinle Duan, Yuting Li, Qiulei Men, Meng Zhang, Xianfeng Qiao, Ally Harari, Maohua Chen
Codling moth, Cydia pomonella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), a highly invasive species, recently became established in the Hexi Corridor, which is a long narrow passage area with many oases surrounded by deserts and tall mountains in Gansu province, Chi... see more
Angela J. Walton, Des E. Conlong
Eldana saccharina Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Gallerinae) occurs on many graminaceous crops and several wild grasses and sedges throughout Africa. It has been reared at the South African Sugarcane Research Institute (SASRI) since the 1970s to study it... see more
Laboratory-reared male and female Eldana saccharina Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Gallerinae)—a major pest of sugarcane (Saccharum spp.; Poales: Poaceae) in South Africa—were exposed to increasing doses of ?-radiation to assess this species’ suitability... see more
Leonela Z. Carabajal Paladino, María E. Ferrari, Juan P. Lauría, Cynthia L. Cagnotti, Jindra Šíchová, Silvia N. López
The tomato leafminer, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is one of the most important pests of tomato. With the purpose of developing environmentally friendly control tactics such as the inherited sterility (IS) technique against this spec... see more
Pride Mudavanhu, Pia Addison, James E. Carpenter, Des E. Conlong
The efficacy of the sterile insect technique (SIT) applied as part of area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) depends on efficient transfer of sperm carrying dominant lethal mutations from sterile males to wild females. Success or failure of this st... see more
Haohao Fu, Fu-wei Zhu, Yue-ye Deng, Qun-fang Weng, Mei-ying Hu, Tian-zhu Zhang
Male and female litchi stem-end borers, Conopomorpha sinensis (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) were ?-irradiated in a 60Co source during several periods of their pupal development and as newly emerged adults. When mature pupae, the most suitable stage for ir... see more
George Saour
Flight abilities and dispersal distances of males of irradiated vs. untreated European grapevine moths (Lobesia botrana [Denis & Schiffermüller]: Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) were assessed in a flight assessment cage and in a vineyard. Newly emerged adult ma... see more
Ke Zhang, Haohao Fu, Shaowen Zhu, Zhibin Li, Qun-fang Weng, Mei-ying Hu
Assessment of quality of male insects has been done primarily in area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) programs that have a sterile insect technique (SIT) component. Routine monitoring of sterile male quality needs to be carried out both in the ma... see more
Cynthia L. Cagnotti, Andrea V. Andorno, Carmen M. Hernández, Leonela Carabajal Paladino, Eduardo N. Botto, Silvia N. López
Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is one of the most devastating pests of tomato. We studied whether partially sterile T. absoluta males and fully sterile females were capable of suppressing wild populations of this moth in semi-controlle... see more
Giancarlo López-Martínez, James E. Carpenter, Stephen D. Hight, Daniel A. Hahn
One of the most important components of a program that has a sterile insect technique (SIT) component is an appropriate irradiation dose. Knowing the organismal dose-response enables the selection of a dose that induces the highest level of sterility whil... see more