2002 Volume 37 Issue 2 Pages 313-318
A mass-rearing system is necessary for success in the West Indian sweetpotato weevil, Euscepes postfasciatus, eradication project using the sterile insect technique (SIT). We must establish an efficient egg collection method, because a large number of eggs must be placed on the surface of an artificial diet for mass-rearing of E. postfasciatus. When females of E. postfasciatus were provided smaller cubic pieces of sweet potato root, they fed but were not able to lay eggs in them. As a result, the females stored more mature chorioned oocytes in the ovariole than normal females that were able to feed and lay eggs. When these females were starved, they dropped twice as many fertilized eggs at random after being provided larger cubic pieces of sweet potato root in which it was possible to lay eggs. We discuss application of this female egg-dropping trait to an actual mass-rearing system.
