2007 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416) The primary goal of the project is to develop efficient means to rear and evaluate insects used in autocidal or biological control methodologies. Our project has 3 objectives that interact in a dynamic manner. These objectives include the. 1)rearing,. 2)quality control testing, and. 3)strain development of tephritid fruit fly pests and their beneficial parasitoids. Existing diets for fruit flies continually need to be improved in order to reduce costs and maintain or increase fly quality. New or existing strains must be regularly monitored for quality to know when they should be replaced or improved; therefore, having a battery of quality control tests or procedures is imperative. Such quality tests need to be cost efficient in discriminating among candidate strains, and whenever possible, measured against wild strains as standards for comparison. 1b.Approach (from AD-416) For the first objective on rearing technology, we propose to examine various methods including: refinement of the existing defined larval and adult diets, new diet bulking agents, and sugar substitutes. The approach will be to compare new diets formulated based on new knowledge of nutrition, vitiamin requirements and bulking agents with the existing diets used for mass-rearing of flies. Data to be collected will include developmental time, days from egg to pupation, overall yield and size of larvae and pupae at different developmental stages. This work will focus on the Mediterranean fruit fly initially, then later on other fruit fly (esp. Bactrocera) or parasitoid species. For the second objective on quality control, we propose to emphasize evaluations of flies for field cage mating competitiveness and survival ability, and of parasitoids for field cage parasitism rates and survival ability. This will be accomplished by visaul observation of fly competitiveness and behavioral characteristics (including mating) in standard field cages. Data from different strains will be compared with currently mass-reared laboratory strains and wild field strains.For the third objective, standard genetic tools will be used for developing new genetic sexing strains in the Bactrocera, especially for B. latifrons. Standard gentetic tools will include pairing of wild and lab strains, and low dose irradiation for translocation lines that might reveal superior traits to the existing strains. The existing melon fly and oriental fruit fly genetic sexing strains will continue to be field evaluated in current or new sterile insect release programs in Hawaii or elsewhere in the Pacific or Asia. Formerly 5320-22430-019-00D (4/05). 4.Accomplishments 1) Large-scale implementation of tephritid fruit fly liquid diet technology. The new liquid diets can potentially significantly reduce the high cost of larval diets for several species of fruit flies. New liquid larval diets, including the screening of 25 yeast base protein sources for liquid diets, were developed and evaluated at the USDA/AR/PBARC facility in Honolulu, HI. The transfer of this new technology is underway and could result in significant savings in rearing costs for sterile insect programs without compromising fly quality. This research was conducted under NP-304, Component VI, Problem Area VID- Implementation of IPM systems. 2) Large-scale field evaluation of oriental fruit fly genetic sexing strain. The new strain for the SIT can significantly increase the efficiency and reduce the high cost of mass-rearing this species. This new strain was mass-reared at the USDA/ARS/PBARC laboratory in Honolulu, HI, and field tested in 2 citrus orchards on the island of Oahu, HI. The successful development and field evaluation of the strain now means that the release of all male sterile flies can result in significant improvements in the quality of released sterile flies and better protection for the multi-billion dollar agricultural industry in California, Florida, and Texas. This research was conducted under NP-304, Component VI, Problem Area VID- Implementation of IPM systems. 6.Technology Transfer Number of new CRADAs and MTAs 22 Number of non-peer reviewed presentations and proceedings 8 Review Publications Cho, I., Rima, J., Chang, C.L. 2007. Spectrofluorometric and high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of a-tocopherol acetate in olive oil. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis. 20:57-62 Chang, C.L., Vargas, R.I. 2007. Addition of Wheat Germ Oil to a Liquid Larval Diet for Rearing Improved Quality Oriental Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae). Journal of Economic Entomology. 100(2):322-326 Mcinnis, D.O., Leblanc, L., Mau, R. 2007. Development and Field Release of a Genetic Sexing Strain of the Melon Fly, Bactrocera Cucurbitae in Hawaii. Hawaiian Entomological Society Proceedings. 39:50-58. Shelly, T.E., Mcinnis, D.O., Rodd, C.E., Edu, J., Pahio, E. 2007. The Sterile Insect Technique and the Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae): Assessing the Utility of Aromatherapy in a Hawaiian Coffee Field. Journal of Economic Entomology. 100:273-282. Caceres, C., Mcinnis, D.O., Shelly, T., Jang, E.B., Robinson, A., Hendrichs, J. 2007. Quality Management Systems for the Fruit Fly Sterile Insect Technique. Florida Entomologist. 90(1):1-9. Shelly, T., Steiner, E., Bosco, V., Mcinnis, D.O. 2006. Additional tests on the efficacy of ginger root oil in enhacing the mating competitiveness of sterile males of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae). Hawaiian Entomological Society Proceedings. 38:41-48. Shelly, T., Edu, J., Smith, E., Hoffman, K., War, M., Santos, R., Favela, A., Garagliano, R., Ibewiro, R., Mcinnis, D.O. 2007. Aromatherapy on a large scale: Exposing entire holding rooms to ginger root oil increases the mating competitiveness of sterile males of the Mediterranean fruit fly in field cage trials. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. 123:193-201. Chang, C.L., Vargas, R.I., Jang, E.B. 2006. Development and assessment of a liquid larval diet for Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera:Tephritidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 99(6):1191-1198.