Environmental Entomology (1993) 22, 1084-1091

J.E. Carpenter and H.R. Gross (1993)
Suppression of feral Helicoverpa zea (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) populations following the infusion of inherited sterility from released substerile males
Environmental Entomology 22 (5), 1084-1091
Abstract: A pilot test was conducted in small mountain valleys from 1986 through 1990 in western North Carolina to assess the influence of released, substerilized males on wild populations of Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), and to measure the level of inherited sterility in wild populations. The number of wild males captured per ha was positively correlated with the distance from the release site of irradiated males. Analyses of seasonal population curves of wild H. zea males calculated from mark-recapture data suggest that seasonal increases of wild H. zea males were significantly delayed or reduced (or both) in mountain valleys where irradiated males were released. The incidence of larvae with chromosomal aberrations (progeny of irradiated, released males) collected from the test sites during the growing seasons indicated that irradiated males were competitive with wild males in mating with wild females, and were successful in producing F₁ progeny which further reduced the wild population.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Database assignments for author(s): James E. Carpenter

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
control - general
population dynamics/ epidemiology

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Helicoverpa zea		U.S.A. (SE)