Navel orangeworm (Pyralidae: Amyelois transitella) is a key pest of almonds and pistachios in California. Moths directly infest nuts which leads to reduced crop yield and quality, and infestation can predispose nuts to fungal pathogens that produce aflatoxins. While several integrated pest management strategies have been developed for A. transitella, studies have recently been initiated to explore the use of sterile insect technique (SIT) as an additional control tool. Mass-rearing, sterilization, and transportation methods originally developed for Pectinophora gossypiella (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) are currently being used for production of A. transitella in a mass-rearing facility, but the impacts of these processes on performance of A. transitella remain unclear. In this study, computerized flight mills were used to evaluate multiple flight parameters of mass-reared and irradiated A. transitella males and females relative to non-irradiated mass-reared moths and two strains of locally reared moths which were neither mass-reared nor irradiated. Mass-reared non-irradiated females performed similarly to both strains of locally reared females, flying a mean 9.4–11.8 km per night, whereas mass-reared and irradiated males and mass-reared non-irradiated males all flew shorter distances, in the range of 3.0–6.7 km per night. All of the mass-reared moths compared to locally reared moths had significantly more non-fliers that did not engage in more than two minutes of continuous flight. Findings from this study suggest that mass-rearing conditions reduce A. transitella flight capacity, while irradiation interacts with moths in a sex-specific manner.

中文翻译：

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用于不育昆虫技术的大规模饲养和辐照脐橙虫（鳞翅目：Pyralidae）的飞行性能评估

脐橙虫（Pyralidae：Amyelois transitella）是加利福尼亚州杏仁和开心果的主要害虫。飞蛾直接侵染坚果，导致作物产量和质量下降，而侵染会使坚果易感染产生黄曲霉毒素的真菌病原体。虽然已经为 A.transitella 开发了几种综合害虫管理策略，但最近已经开始研究探索使用昆虫不育技术 (SIT) 作为额外的控制工具。最初为棉果果蝇（鳞翅目：Gelechiidae）开发的大规模养殖、灭菌和运输方法目前正在大规模养殖设施中用于生产 A. transitella，但这些过程对 A. transitella 性能的影响仍不清楚. 在这项研究中，计算机化飞行试验机用于评估大规模饲养和辐照的 A.transitella 雄性和雌性相对于未辐照大规模饲养的飞蛾和两种既没有大规模饲养也没有辐照的本地饲养的飞蛾的多个飞行参数。大规模饲养的未经辐照的雌性与本地饲养的两种雌性的表现相似，平均每晚飞行 9.4-11.8 公里，而大规模饲养和辐照的雄性以及未经辐照的大规模饲养的雄性都飞行更短的距离，在该范围内每晚 3.0–6.7 公里。与本地饲养的飞蛾相比，所有大规模饲养的飞蛾具有明显更多的非飞行者，这些飞蛾的连续飞行时间不超过两分钟。这项研究的结果表明，大规模饲养条件会降低 A.transitella 的飞行能力，