The sterile insect technique is used to manage or control fruit flies throughout the world. The technique relies on large scale production before delivery to release managers. As part of the mass production phase, there are many quality control tests to demonstrate and maintain high quality pupae and flies. One highly desirable characteristic is adults with a long life so that these adults can reach sexual maturity and sterile males mate with wild fertile flies in the field and thus produce no viable offspring. Originally longevity was assessed allowing adults to have unlimited access to food and water. As quality and longevity increased, this methodology added significantly to workload and space demands and many facilities moved to testing longevity under stress where no food or water was provided. Here we examined >27,000 Queensland fruit fly Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) from 160 weekly production batches from July 2004 to October 2009 where flies were not provided food or water. The mean longevity was 54.4 ± SE hours. Longevity was significantly shorter from August to March, and the longevity was significantly longer in June. Longevity was not related to pupal weight, contrary to expectations. Weights were significantly lower in June and highest in summer.

OBJECTIVES: To carrying out an integrated analysis on regional environment and human health in China and to detect the association between longevity and daily element intake from food and drinking water. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: All the 18 cities and counties in Hainan Province. MEASUREMENTS: The distribution of elderly population and longevity indexes at a county level in Hainan Province were investigated. Quality of food and drinking water in Hainan was evaluated by comparing the chemical elements with National Standards. In addition, the association between element concentrations in food and water and longevity was examined using spearman’s rank correlation. RESULTS: The proportion of elderly people is higher in the northern part of the province compared with southern counties. Food contributes a greater proportion of daily element intake than drinking water. Compared with the National Standards, reaching rates for elements were over 85% for both food and drinking water. There was a positive correlation between daily intake of Cu, Se, and Zn from food and water and aging and longevity indexes, and a negative correlation between Pb intake and these indexes. CONCLUSION: The quality of food and water in Hainan Province are good and that, compared with water, food is a more important source of trace elements. An appropriate supply of Cu, Se, and Zn is important, whereas excessive intake of Pb should be avoided. The findings also provide basic data to support further studies on regional variations in longevity and their relationship to diet and drinking water.

Vigna unguiculata, V. aureus, Peureria phaseoloides and Phaseolus vulgaris were suitable as alternate legume food sources for nymphal development of Acanthomia tomentosicollis Stal. Gentrosema pubescens, Galopogonium mucunoides, Grotolaria juncea and Sphenostylis stenocarpa did not support nymphal development beyond the first in star stage and Glycine max supported A. tomentosicollis only to the fourth-instar stage. Nymphal development was completed in 13-21 days on the various suitable food sources. Nymphal mortality was affected by the type of food source. Weights of freshly-emerged adult males and females were significantly influenced by the legume source of food. The longevity of adults reared on Gajanus cajan and V. unguiculata was not different, but the fecundity of the females reared on the latter plant was significantly higher. Access to free water decreased the rate of development but significantly increased both the fecundity and longevity of females