Rearing Cactoblastis cactorum (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) on Artificial Diet and Opuntia Cladodes1
Orville G. Marti, Ronald E. Myers, and James E. Carpenter
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Crop Protection and Management Research Laboratory, PG Box 748, Tifton, Georgia 31793 USA
J. Entomol. Sd. 43(1): 95-106 (January 2008) Berg, is an invasive species that threatens Abstract The cactus moth, Cactob/astiS cactorum economically and ecologically important native cacti in Mexico and the U.S. Southwest. The insect presently occurs along the coastal U.S. from Charleston, SC, to Dauphin Island, south of Mobile, AL, and in the interior of Florida. Current control and eradication tactics include manual destruction of infested cactus and the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), which involves the release of irradiated cactus moths to mate with wild moths and produce sterile offspring. The ability to rear the cactus moths in the laboratory has been crucial in research and development of survey and control techniques. Procedures for rearing the cactus moth in the laboratory on cactus cladodes and artificial diet are described and provide a foundation for the further development of mass-rearing protocols. Cactaceae, mass rearing, artificial Key Words CactoblastiS cactorum, Pyralidae, Opuntia, diet, invasive species, sterile insect technique
The cactus moth, CactoblastiS cactorum Berg (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Phyciti- nae), is an invasive species first detected in the continental United States in Florida in 1989 (Habeck and Bennett 1990, Zimmerman et al. 2001). It has since been detected in the interior of the Florida peninsula, up the east coast of the US as far north as Charleston, SC, and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico as far west as Dauphin Island, south of Mobile, AL, (Soils et al. 2004, Carpenter, pers. obs.). This insect is recognized as a serious threat to native Opuntia species in the US and particularly in Mexico (Perez-Sandi 2001, Stiling and Moon 2001), where Opuntia species are widely used as food, livestock fodder, medicine, dye production, and fencing (Vigueras and Portillo 2001). Most importantly, Opuntia and other cacti are major components of local ecosystems in Mexico and the US Southwest. To avert the economic and ecological consequences that C. cactorum could have in Mexico and the U. S. Southwest, the US Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with Mexico, has developed procedures for using the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is reared in large numbers on against C. cactorum. In the SIT program, C. cactorum artificial diet in the laboratory and adults are irradiated with Co 60 , which produces complete sterility in females and partial sterility in males. Irradiated insects are then released in large numbers at the leading edge of the invasive population and at times