Effects of different diets on Aedes aegypti adults: improving rearing techniques for sterile insect technique

Effects of different diets on Aedes aegypti adults: improving rearing techniques for sterile insect technique

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Aynoanne Leandro Barbosa , Glayciane Costa Gois , Verenna Barros dos Santos , Aline Taiane de Macedo Pinto , Bianca Pires de Castro Andrade , Lucas Barbosa de Souza , Fernanda Hohana Almeida e Sá , Jair Fernandes Virginio and Mário Adriano Ávila Queiroz,  Bulletin of Entomological Research,  2023-11-28 11:17:21.

The aim was to evaluate the effect of different energy diets available in adulthood on the longevity, dispersal capacity and sexual performance of Aedes aegypti produced under a mass-rearing system. To evaluate the effects of diets in relation to the survival of the adult male insects of Ae. aegypti, six treatments were used: sucrose at a concentration of 10%, as a positive control (sack10); starvation, as a negative control (starvation); sucrose at a concentration of 20% associated with 1 g/l of ascorbic acid (sac20vitC); wild honey in a concentration of 10% (honey10); demerara sugar in a 10% concentration (demerara10); and sucrose at a concentration of 20% associated with 1 g/l of ascorbic acid and 0.5 g/l of amino acid proline (sac20vitCPr). Each treatment had 16 cages containing 50 adult males.

For the tests of flight ability and propensity to copulation, five treatments were used (saca10; sac20vitC; mel10; demerara10; and sac20vitCPr), with males each for flight ability and females copulated by a single male for copulation propensity. The diet composed of sucrose at a concentration of 20% associated with ascorbic acid, as an antioxidant, improved the survival, flight ability and propensity to copulate in Ae. aegypti males under mass-rearing conditions, and may be useful to enhance the performance of sterile males, thus improving the success of sterile insect technique programmes.