Establishment of a satellite rearing facility to support the release of sterile Aedes albopictus males. I. Optimization of mass rearing parameters

The vector species Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1894) was recorded in Turkey for the first time, near the Greek border, in 2011 and a high risk of expansion towards Aegean and Mediterranean coasts of Turkey was estimated. A preliminary study was planned to evaluate the possibility of creating a satellite mass rearing facility for this species and manage a larval rearing procedure by using the new mass-rearing technology proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). For this purpose, the effects of different larval densities (1, 2, 3 and 4 larvae per ml) on the preimaginal development were evaluated by observing pupal, adult and male productivity using life cycle trials. Geometric morphometric analyses were also performed to define all phenotypic differences that occurred on the wing size and shape morphology of adult stage at the four different rearing conditions tested. A high pupation productivity was obtained with a larval density of 2 larvae/ml while adult emergence ratio was not affected by the densities tested. No significant difference was observed in shape of the wings among different densities in males and females. Nevertheless, a significant difference in female's centroid sizes was observed between the treatment groups 1-2 and 3-4 larvae/ml and in males centroid size reared at 1 larvae/ml versus the other densities.