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African animal trypanosomoses are vector-borne diseases that cause enormous livestock losses in sub-Saharan Africa, with drastic socio-economic impacts. Vector control in the context of an area-wide integrated pest management program with a sterile insect technique component requires the production of high-quality sterile male tsetse flies. In our study, we evaluated the effect of irradiation on the fecundity of Glossina palpalis gambiensisto identify the optimal dose that will induce maximum sterility while maintaining biological performance as much as possible. In addition, male mating performance was evaluated in semi-field cages. The irradiation doses used were 90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, and 150 Gy, and untreated males were used as the control. The results showed that pupal production and emergence rates were higher in batches of females that had mated with fertile males than in those that had mated with irradiated males with any experimental dose. A dose of 120 Gy administered to male flies induced 97–99% sterility after mating with virgin females. For the semi-field cage experiments, males irradiated with 120 Gy showed good sexual competitiveness as compared to fertile males and those irradiated with 140 Gy, considering the level of filling of spermatheca and the number of pairs formed. The optimal radiation dose of 120 Gy found in this study is slightly different from the traditional dose of 110 Gy that has been used in several eradication programmes in the past. The potential reasons for this difference are discussed, and an argument is made for the inclusion of reliable dosimetry systems in these types of studies.

Balancing process efficiency and adult sterile male biological quality is one of the challenges in the success of the sterile insect technique (SIT) against insect pest populations. For the SIT against mosquitoes, many stress factors need to be taken into consideration when producing sterile males that require high biological quality to remain competitive once released in the field. Pressures of mass rearing, sex sorting, irradiation treatments, packing, transport and release including handling procedures for each step, add to the overall stress budget of the sterile male post-release. Optimizing the irradiation step to achieve maximum sterility while keeping off-target somatic damage to a minimum can significantly improve male mating competitiveness. It is therefore worth examining various protocols that have been found to be effective in other insect species, such as dose fractionation. A fully sterilizing dose of 70 Gy was administered to Aedes aegyptimales as one acute dose or fractionated into either two equal doses of 35 Gy, or one low dose of 10 Gy followed by a second dose of 60 Gy. The two doses were separated by either 1- or 2-day intervals. Longevity, flight ability, and mating competitiveness tests were performed to identify beneficial effects of the various treatments. Positive effects of fractionating dose were seen in terms of male longevity and mating competitiveness. Although applying split doses generally improved male quality parameters, the benefits may not outweigh the added labor in SIT programmes for the management of mosquito vectors.

Aedes aegyptiand Aedes albopictusare competent vectors of arboviruses such as dengue and chikungunya viruses which co-exist in some areas, including La Réunion island, Indian Ocean. A type of reproductive interference called satyrization has been described in sympatric species where dominant species mating fails to produce hybrids and thus reduces the fitness and tends to control the spread of the other species. Here, we investigated satyrization in laboratory experiments to provide insights on the potential impact on Ae. aegyptiof a control campaign including a sterile insect technique component against Ae. albopictus. Different mating crosses were used to test sympatric, conspecific-interspecific and allopatric effects of irradiated and non-irradiated male Ae. albopictuson female Ae. aegypti, including in a situation of skewed male ratio. Our results suggest that there was only a low level of satyrization between sympatric populations of Ae. aegyptiand Ae. albopictuscolonized from La Réunion island. A male Ae. albopictusto female Ae. aegyptiratio of 3:1 did not increase the level of satyrization. Female Ae. aegyptipreviously mated to male Ae. albopictuswere not prevented from being inseminated by conspecific males. A satyrization effect was not seen between allopatric Ae. albopictusand Ae. aegyptistrains from La Réunion Island either. The tested Ae. aegyptistrain from La Réunion island has therefore developed full resistance to satyrization and so releasing sterile male Ae. albopictusmay not suppress Ae. aegyptipopulations if an overflooding of irradiated male Ae. albopictusleads to similar results. The management strategy of two competent species in a sympatric area is discussed.

Mating in Anopheles gambiae has been observed only in outdoor swarms. Here we evaluate whether mating also occurs indoors. Mark-release-recapture of virgin males and females in natural houses showed that mating occurred over a single day even when mosquitoes can leave the house through exit traps and without adaptation to laboratory conditions. In these experiments, insemination rate in the M molecular form of An. gambiae (and An. arabiensis) was higher than that of the S form (15 versus 6%). Under these conditions, smaller females of the M form mated more frequently than larger females of that form. Sampling mosquitoes throughout the day showed that both sexes enter houses around sunrise and leave around sunset, staying indoors together from dawn to dusk. In an area dominated by the M form, the daily rate of insemination in samples from exit traps was ≈5% higher than in those from entry traps, implying that mating occurred indoors. Importantly, frequency of cross mating between the molecular forms was as high as that between members of the same form, indicating that, indoors, assortative mating breaks down. Altogether, these results suggest that indoor mating is an alternative mating strategy of the M molecular form of An. gambiae. Because naturally occurring mating couples have not yet been observed indoors, this conclusion awaits validation.