2005 Annual Report 1.What major problem or issue is being resolved and how are you resolving it (summarize project aims and objectives)? How serious is the problem? What does it matter? Fruit flies are serious pests of tropical and subtropical agriculture. In Hawaii fruit flies limit diversified agriculture production, require quarantine treatments for export and are a reservoir for areas where the flies currently do not exist. The sterile insect technique (SIT) is a non-pesticidal method of fruit fly control where released sterile male flies mate with non-fertile females resulting in non-viable offspring. The major problem being worked on is improving the quality of mass-reared sterile insects, especially of the medfly, Ceratitis capitata, and the melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae, employing the sterile insect release method (SIRM). We are using several different approaches: development of more efficient genetic sexing (males-only) strains, development of improved adult and larval diets and methodologies for mass-rearing, genetic selection for improved behavioral or morphological traits in lab-produced flies and parasitoids, and development of field-based quality control methodology to monitor strain fitness in the field. These approaches will help improve the SIT and parasitoid methodologies which will improve fruit fly control and eradication. Tephritid fruit flies severely limit development of diversified agriculture in Hawaii. As an alien species to much of the continental US, the establishment of fruit flies would cost millions of dollars in direct crop losses and lost revenue in the U. S. annually. Additionally, millions of dollars in lost trade would result from the direct loss of overseas export markets as a result of fruit flies. Cumulatively, the loss to US agriculture would be in the billions of dollars. Finding better ways of controlling these fruit flies will mean more productive lives for many people in the U.S., and elsewhere around the world. This project is conducted under NP304, Crop Protection and Quarantine (Component 5), and contributes to NP308, Alternatives to Methyl Bromide (Component 2). Our research will help provide methods to increase production from plants by helping eliminate or suppress plant pests. These alternative methods include use of biological control techniques such as the release of sterile insects, parasitoids, or genetic control organisms. 2.List the milestones (indicators of progress) from your Project Plan. Milestone 1: Develop efficient rearing technologies, including new or improved diets and methodologies, to produce high quality tephritid fruit flies and associated braconid parasitoids for use in control or eradication programs. A. Diet refinement B. Bactrocera genetic sexing standards Milestone 2: Improve quality control procedures for efficient field evaluation of tephritid fruit flies and their associated parasitoids. A. Tephritid field quality control tests for mating and survival B. Parasitoid field quality control tests for parasitism and survival Milestone 3: Develop improved strains, including genetic sexing strains, of tephritid fruit flies or their associated parasitoids, to efficiently control wild populations of fruit fly pests. A. Develop improved strains, including genetic sexing strains B. Conduct field evaluations of genetic sexing strains 4a.What was the single most significant accomplishment this past year? Mass-production and SIT of the oriental fruit fly in Hawaii: The mating efficiency of sterile mass-produced insects for SIT programs needs to be improved in order to increase the effectiveness of sterile insect releases in the field worldwide. Dr. Don McInnis at the US Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center (PBARC), Honolulu, Hawaii, has mass-produced and evaluated a genetic sexing strain of the oriental fruit fly for potential use in area-wide, integrated pest control programs against this insect. Dr. McInnis has recently expanded mass-production of the strain to ca. 2 million/wk and released up to 700,000 males/wk into the field in a second test site in Waimea, Big island of Hawaii, while monitoring the program with trap catches and sterility of eggs in infested fruit. This evaluation has shown that releases of all-male sterile oriental fruit flies increased egg sterility and consequently reduced fly populations of this species in the test areas. Due to the action of the sterile flies, affected growers are enjoying added fruit and vegetable production in the treated area in an environmentally friendly manner. 4b.List other significant accomplishments, if any. None 4c.List any significant activities that support special target populations. None 4d.Progress report. None. 5.Describe the major accomplishments over the life of the project, including their predicted or actual impact. (1) continuing to develop a procedure for large scale larval liquid diet rearing for tephritid fruit flies that could potentially save in production costs and in diet waste management, (2) continuing to evaluate the world’s only pupal color sexing strain of the oriental fruit fly in a sterile release program for the first time. These initial accomplishments help to improve the sterile insect technique by reducing production costs, improving adult fly quality and efficiency in the field, and improving deployment and monitoring strategies in the field that will be employed in fruit fly control or eradication programs. 6.What science and/or technologies have been transferred and to whom? When is the science and/or technology likely to become available to the end-user (industry, farmer, other scientists)? What are the constraints, if known, to the adoption and durability of the technology products? Technology for reducing the vermiculite volume for pupation from 10 liters to 5 or 2 liters per pupal holding box was transferred to the APHIS medfly mass-rearing facility at Waimanalo, HI. They have not reported any decrease in fly quality because of this reduction, which is consistent with our studies. Currently, APHIS is implementing the 2 liters of larvae on 2 liters of vermiculite (recently changed to the same volume of corncob grit for health and safety reasons). A chemically defined meridic larval diet for C. capitata was released to the participants at the Third Meeting of Working Group on Fruit Flies of the Western Hemisphere at Guatemala City on July 4-9, 1999. A complete chemically defined adult diet recipe for C. capitata was published and available to tephritid fruit fly researchers in Jan., 2000. A psyllium based completely chemically defined larval diet for C. capitata was demonstrated with the FAO/IAEA in Seibersdorf, Austria (Aug., 2002). A new liquid larval diet and its delivery system for Bactrocera fruit fly rearing was reported in an oral presentation at the USDA/ARS Area Wide IPM program review (April, 2003), poster presentation at the ESA meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio (October 2003), and poster presentation at the 5th Meeting of the Working Group on Fruit Flies of the Western Hemisphere (May 16-21, 2004). A new liquid larval diet and its delivery system for oriental fruit fly large scale rearing was presented at the IAEA Coodinated Research Program meeting in Manila, Philippines (March, 2005). Technology has been transferred for using oriental fruit flies to sterilize and suppress the carambola fruit fly in Suriname, yet a large-scale free-release test is needed to demonstrate the feasibility of the cross-species SIT concept. The Toliman TSL medfly genetic sexing strain, that we helped field test extensively in Guatemala, has been mass-reared this past year in the California rearing facility in Hawaii, and the same TSL strain will be transferred to a remodeled USDA/APHIS facility by 2005. A new medfly strain selected for high mating competitiveness was transferred to the ARS rearing facility in Honolulu in June, 2000, replacing the older Maui med strain. The world’s first melon fly genetic sexing strain was developed in 2001, then mass-produced and field released in an SIT program beginning in Feb. 2003. This strain has been released in a small-scale test in Waimea, Big Island of Hawaii, a moderate scale test in Kula, Maui, and a large scale test in central Oahu. The strain has performed well, showing high field competitiveness in all 3 field test sites. This strain is being transferred to the USDA/APHIS mass-rearing facility in the summer of 2004. Collaborative efforts have developed aromatherapy treatments that significantly improve the mating efficiency of medflies and oriental fruit flies by exposing males to standard field lures. This technology has been transferred to several countries, including Guatemala, Australia, and Argentina. Mating enhancement of fruit flies has been achieved with aromatherapy (medflies) or chemotherapy (oriental fruit fly), through collaboration with Dr. Todd Shelly of USDA/APHIS. Transfer of this technology has reached the mass-rearing level for medflies in ongoing studies to raise the efficiency of medfly field mating competitiveness. This technology has been transferred to medfly SIT action programs in the USA and Latin America. The world’s first genetic sexing strain of the oriental fruit fly has been mass-produced and successfully evaluated in the field for the first time with releases of all-male sterile flies in wild population sites in Hawaii. Chemotherapy with methyl eugenol has been developed to increase the mating ability of exposed sterile males. This technology has been transferred to SIT program personnel in Thailand and the IAEA in Austria. 7.List your most important publications in the popular press and presentations to organizations and articles written about your work. (NOTE: List your peer reviewed publications below). This project replaces the old CRIS project 5320-22430-019-00D which has terminated; therefore, there are no publications at this time.