Assess competitiveness of codling moths reared on an agar-free diet under continual standard rearing conditions

Insect quality before and after transport to South Africa.  In the evaluations conducted after transport, adult male codling moth lived an average of 7.2 days while adult females lived 7.7 days.  These adults were already 36-48 hours old before transport to South Africa.  Adult longevity measured in Canada for the same batch of moths was 12.0 days for males and 9.4 days for females.  One hundred percent of the Canadian codling moth adults set-up as individual pairs were found to be mated when the females were dissected after 48 hours.  These results showed that the insect quality as measured by ability to mate was not significantly affected by the journey from Canada to South Africa.

Small cage mating study.  Canadian codling moth males are able to effectively respond to and mate with both Canadian and South African females over a wide range of environmental conditions.  In general, South African males were more negatively affected by low temperatures than were the Canadian males. At temperatures above 18°C, South African males were involved in 41.5 % of all matings.  However, when temperatures dropped below 18°C, South African males were involved in only 28.0 % of all matings.

Field compatibility studies.  The results from the field studies demonstrate that Canadian females and South African females were not significantly different in their ability to attract both Canadian and South African males over a wide range of environmental conditions.  Canadian and South African males were able to respond to calling females in the field irrespective of their country of origin.  The number of Canadian males captured in the traps was always higher because more Canadian moths were released in the field.