Reproduction in Caribbean Fruit Flies: Comparisons between a Laboratory Strain and a Wild Strain

Abstract

Mating behavior and insemination were compared in a laboratory strain and wild strain of Caribbean fruit flies, Anastrepha suspensa (Loew), under laboratory conditions. The laboratory strain began mating at an earlier age and mated more readily in small screen cages in the laboratory than the wild strain did. Sixty percent of the laboratory strain females mated a second time, and some mated 3, 4, and 5 times. Most of the remating occurred within 48 hr of the initial mating. None of 25 once-mated wild females remated within 5 days. Flies of both strains mated with each other. Males of both strains failed to transfer sperm to females in about 25% of the initial matings. The mean time spent in copulation by the wild strain was 37.4 @+ 2.0 min, and neither the laboratory strain nor crosses between the strains differed from this time significantly.