PNEUMATIC AIR SEPARATION FOR THE SORTING OF PARASITIZED AND UNPARASITIZED FRUIT-FLY (DIPTERA, TEPHRITIDAE) PUPARIA

A pneumatic air separator was successfully used to separate unparasiti zed puparia of Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), B. cucurbitae (Coquillett ), and Mediterranean fruit Ay, Ceratitis capitata (Weidemann), from pu paria parasitized by Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Ashmead), Psyttalia fletcheri (Silvestri), and D. tryoni (Cameron), respectively. Separat ion was done 9-13 d after parasitization with little difference in eff iciency or separation among species. Differences in bulk densities (we ight to volume! of the unparasitized puparia of the different fly spec ies were all < 10% so they could not be separated by this method. Mort ality (percentage unemerged) of the flies and parasitoids was not sign ificantly affected by separation procedure. This equipment is adaptabl e to an automated rearing and handling system for the reduction of lab or costs.