sp. AA26 as a Protein Source in the Larval Diet of .

The Spotted-Wing Drosophila fly, , is an invasive pest species infesting major agricultural soft fruits. management is currently based on insecticide applications that bear major concerns regarding their efficiency, safety and environmental sustainability. The sterile insect technique (SIT) is an efficient and friendly to the environment pest control method that has been suggested for the population control. Successful SIT applications require mass-rearing of the strain to produce competitive and of high biological quality males that will be sterilized and consequently released in the wild. Recent studies have suggested that insect gut symbionts can be used as a protein source for larval diet and replace the expensive brewer's yeast. In this study, we exploited sp. AA26 as partial and full replacement of inactive brewer's yeast in the larval diet and assessed several fitness parameters. sp. AA26 dry biomass proved to be an inadequate nutritional source in the absence of brewer's yeast and resulted in significant decrease in pupal weight, survival under food and water starvation, fecundity, and adult recovery.