Female preference did not evolve under laboratory conditions in the solanaceous fruit fly Bactrocera latifrons

Sterile insect technique (SIT) is widely used to eradicate target pest species. Its effectiveness depends on the ability of released sterile males to mate with wild females. In pest species with a female choice mating system, there is potential for female preference to evolve in the wild population in view of the resulting zero-fitness in females that mate with sterile males. The evolution of female preference against sterile males can, therefore, reduce the efficiency of the SIT as the likelihood decreases that sterile males will mate with wild females. We examined this experimentally by using the solanaceous fruit fly Bactrocera latifrons, a serious pest of solanaceous crops, by allowing female preference in mass-reared fruit flies to select between fertile and sterile males over 12 generations. However, this did not generate a rapid evolutionary response. Also the remating rate of females did not increase, even when the first mating partner was a sterile male. We discuss the implication of the results for the eradication project by the SIT program.