Assessment of the quality of mass-reared Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) males treated with dieldrin as larvae in a female-killing procedure

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The administration of dieldrin in the larval diet of Lucilia cuprina (Wied.) killed susceptible females with no pre-emergence mortality of males in a strain which contained a Y–autosome translocation linking dieldrin-resistance to the male sex. Laboratory assays of flight activity, sexual competitiveness and visual sensitivity revealed no significant differences between treated and untreated males. The life-span of treated males was slightly reduced at the highest dieldrin concentration used. In field releases, however, the recapture rate of treated males was much lower than for untreated males, indicating a major deficiency in the performance of dieldrin-treated males in the field that was not suspected from the laboratory tests.