Irradiation biology of male brown marmorated stink bugs: is there scope for the sterile insect technique?

Abstract

Purpose: Brown marmorated stink bugs, Halyomorpha halys Stål (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), are regularly intercepted, but there are few eradication tools. Currently, no sterile insect technique program exists for Hemiptera.

Materials and methods: Adult males were irradiated at 4–60 Gy, mated and their progeny reared for two generations, with mortality assessed at F₁ egg, F₁ adult and F₂ egg stages.

Results: The F₁ eggs showed a dose response to irradiation between 4 and 36 Gy, with 97% sterility at 16 Gy, and higher doses producing complete egg mortality. Only rare F₁ survivors had progeny, but the F₂ generation showed identical responses between maternal and paternal lines; most egg batches showed either very low or very high mortality. Irradiation with 16 Gy resulted in 98.5% sterility, cumulative over F₁ and F₂.

Conclusions: Lack of a dose response at the F₂ generation precludes the use of irradiation-induced inherited sterility. The conventional sterile insect technique appears possible by irradiation of males from ∼12 to 16 Gy. The effect of radiation dose on females is not known, thus we cannot conclude whether bi-sex release is feasible so for now the release of males only is recommended. More work is needed on the competitive fitness of irradiated males, and logistics such as mass rearing or field collection, in order to determine the feasibility of the approach.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Irradiation
• stink bug
• sterile insect technique
• suppression
• sterility

Acknowledgements

We thank the United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service and the Better Border Biosecurity collaboration, and the joint funds for NZ-USA collaboration and travel, and the Agricultural and Marketing Research and Development Trust for funding the visit to New Zealand by JEC. We also thank Don Weber and our USDA ARS colleagues at the Insect Biocontrol & Behavior Laboratory, Beltsville MD for insect supply.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

T. J. Welsh is a technician with the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd. Biosecurity Group, with a degree in biochemistry. He was funded to visit USA to undertake these experiments with the support of USDA ARS colleagues by Better Border Biosecurity. Taylor also works on wing beat frequency as a diagnostic feature for insects in traps and is currently enrolled for a two year masters in electrical engineering at the University of Canterbury.

L. D. Stringer is completing a PhD through the University of Auckland on staff at Lincoln with Prof Max Suckling, with co-supervisors Associate Prof Jacqueline Beggs and Dr. John Kean.

R. Caldwell is an entomology technician with USDA ARS in Tifton, Georgia and collected the data together with Taylor Welsh.

J. E. Carpenter is a highly published entomologist with strong background on irradiation-induced sterility, now retired.

D. M. Suckling is the Science Group Leader for Biosecurity, New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd. and on staff at the University of Auckland School of Biological Sciences.