Topical Application of Synthetic Hormones Terminated Reproductive Diapause of a Univoltine Weed Biological Control Agent

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) is an invasive annual plant that has infested multi-million ha in the western United States, causing multi-billion dollars of losses and management costs. The rosette weevil (Ceratapion basicorne) has recently been approved for biological control of this weed. However, this weevil reproduces only once a year, which hinders mass-rearing for release. Here, we tested whether insect hormones can break the reproductive diapause of female weevils. We found that applying two insect hormones, 20E and methoprene, can consistently terminate diapause of female weevils to enable them to lay eggs. Thus, topically applying insect hormones could be used to induce females to lay eggs at any time of year, which would permit rearing more than one generation per year. This could greatly increase the number of weevils produced per year in a mass-rearing program to accelerate the release of rosette weevils to help suppress yellow starthistle in the United States. These insects would revert to having one generation per year after release in synchrony with their host plant. ABSTRACT: Classical biological control is an important method for controlling invasive alien weeds. Univoltine insects can be highly effective biological control agents of annual weeds because they are well synchronized with their host plant. However, having only one generation per year makes it difficult and slow to multiply them in the laboratory for initial field releases. If it were possible to terminate reproductive diapause early, then we could rear multiple generations per year, which would greatly increase annual production. We used a recently approved biocontrol agent, Ceratapion basicorne (a univoltine weevil), for yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) as a model system to study the use of two insect hormones, 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) and methoprene, to terminate reproductive diapause. Methoprene (1 μg applied topically) terminated reproductive diapause of female weevils, whereas doses of 0.0, 0.01 and 0.1 μg did not. The combination of methoprene and 20E had a stronger effect and induced an increase in eggs (1.51 ± 0.16 eggs/day, mean ± SE) compared with a methoprene only group (1.00 ± 0.13 eggs/day), and a control group (0.21 ± 0.04 eggs/day). Thus, topical application of these hormones should enable us to rear the weevil out of its normal season and produce more than one generation per year, which will increase productivity of mass-rearing it for field release. Once released in the field, the insect would continue as a univoltine agent that is well-synchronized with its host plant.