Insects
Bactrocera dorsalis used in this study were reared at the Animal
Rearing and Quarantine Unit of icipe , following the procedures
described by Ekesi and Mohammed (2011). For this experiment, adults with
similar scutum colouration pattern (Fig. 1) were separated from the
mass-reared colony, kept in Perspex cages (80 × 80 × 80 cm) and
maintained at 25 ±1°C, 60 ±10% RH and a photoperiod of L12:D12 for more
than 30 generations before the start of experiments. These adults were
fed on an artificial diet consisting of a mixture of sugar and ultrapure
grade enzymatic yeast hydrolysate (USB Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio,
USA) at the ratio of 3:1 by volume and were provided with water in a
Petri dish (8.6 cm diameter) with a layer of pumice granules to prevent
drowning of the flies.