FECUNDITY OF FEMALE BOLL WEEVILS UNALTERED AFTER SURVIVING LD50 DOSE OF MALATHION

Three day old female boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman, reared from field-infested cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L. squares, were allowed to mate, then topically treated with predetermined LD50 (2 [mu]g) of malathion to assess its effects on fecundity, oviposition and body fat condition over a ten day period. Cotton squares and artificial diet were used as food sources on malathion-treated and nontreated. The LD50 caused [approximately equal]50% mortality in the square-fed malathion treatment, but the artificial diet-fed malathion treated weevils were less susceptible. LD50 survivors fed squares produced >=9 times more chorionated eggs in the ovaries and oviposited >=19-fold more eggs than survivors fed artificial diet regardless of the malathion treatment. Boll weevils that survived a 2 [mu]g (LD50) and fed squares were [approximately equal]4.5-fold leaner than diet-fed weevils. Our findings demonstrate that nonresistant boll weevils surviving a sublethal dose of malathion will reproduce without any delay or significant loss in fecundity, and the food source for which boll weevils are maintained will directly affect the results. The significance of these findings and how they are related to the final stages of boll weevil eradicating from the United States are discussed.