ASSESSING THE QUALITY OF MASS-REARED CODLING MOTHS (LEPIDOPTERA, TORTRICIDAE) BY USING FIELD RELEASE-RECAPTURE TESTS

Following small-scale field releases of sterile, mass-reared codling m oths, Cydia pomonella (L.), in the spring of 1995, significantly highe r numbers of adults originating from larvae that had been induced into diapause were recaptured in passive interception traps compared, with standard (nondiapaused) colony moths reared under either constant or fluctuating temperatures. When releases were made in the summer, signi ficantly more diapaused females were again recaptured and similar numb ers of diapaused and fluctuating temperature-reared standard males wer e trapped. Our field data showed that both male and female codling mot hs dispersed farther as ambient temperatures increased. When standard and. diapaused sterile codling moths were released into replicated 1-h a plots under large-scale Sterile Insect Release program conditions in the summer and fall of 1996 and the spring of 1997, the proportion of recaptured diapaused males was significantly higher than for standard (nondiapaused) moths. This was true for recapture of moles with passi ve interception, pheromone-baited, and virgin female-halted traps.