I 



474 



times greater than that of mated females. Females that had mated as long 

 as 1 wk prior to release were still not as responsive as were virgins. The 

 interval after the last mating may be important in determining whether or 

 not a mated female will remate. Response of mated females is also influenced 

 by male density. The fact that some mated native females will respond to 

 males a second time should be beneficial to a boll weevil eradication program. 

 In field cage tests the response of sterile female boll weevils to male-baited 

 traps was approximately the same as that of fertile females. If eradication 

 of the boll weevil is attempted, the release of sterile females along with the 

 sterile males may contribute the premature sperm depletion of the sterile 

 males, unless an effective pheromone trapping systems is devised to remove 

 these females from the field after release. 



936. , and Earle, N. W. 1976. Competitiveness of busuifan-fed sterile vs. 

 native male boll weevils. Environ. Entomol. 5: 279-280. 



Field cage tests to evaluate the competitiveness between busulfan-fed sterile 

 males of a laboratory strain and fertile males of a field-collected strain 

 were conducted. The field-collected males mated with 66.2% of the released 

 field-collected females and the sterile males mated with 27.0%; 6.8% of the 

 females had apparently mated with both sterile and fertile males. 



937. ; Earle, N. W. ; and Hollier, D. D. 1977. BoU weevils: field and 

 laboratory assessment of mating ability and sperm content after irra- 

 diation with or without diflubenzuron treatment. J. Econ. Entomol. 

 70: 562-564. 



Sperm depletion did not occur within the 1st week after irradiated males and 

 females of Anthonomus grand is Boheman were released together into isolated 

 field plots. Also, survival and mating ability did not differ as a result 

 of treatment. The treatments were: irradiation of 4 -day-old adults plus di- 



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