Methods for mass production of eggs and fecundity of green oak tortrix, Tortrix viridana L. (Lep., Tortricidae)

Tortrix viridana eggs can be produced outdoors or in the laboratory. In the first case, moths of both sexes are introduced into breeding bags made of polyester net and installed around the branch tips of oaks. Afterwards. the branch tips are removed and the eggs that have been deposited on their bar k are extracted with a scalpel. In the laboratory, the moths are reared in boxes or cages supplied with a feeder (cotton + 5% sugar water) and with th e bottom covered with one or several paper towel sheets serving as egg repo sitories. This type of paper is very attractive to the females, who lay egg s in the small pits that form a regular network on its surface. Its use con siderably assists location, counting, removal and, finally, the handling of the eggs. Several thousand female moths were reared and several hundred th ousand eggs produced. On average the cages were more productive than bags a nd boxes: 70 eggs per reared female versus 65 and 59 eggs, respectively. Yi elds of about one hundred eggs per female were reached several times.