INTEGRATIVE CHARACTERIZATION OF INSECTICIDE RESISTANCE IN MUSCA DOMESTICA L. (DIPTERA: MUSCIDAE) AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT WITH PUPAL PARASITOIDS AND ESSENTIAL OILS
house fly; metabolic resistance; kdr; pupal parasitoids; essential oils.
The house fly, Musca domestica L., is a synanthropic pest of sanitary importance in livestock production systems, and its control depends mainly on pyrethroids and neonicotinoids, whose efficacy is being compromised by resistance. This thesis aimed to characterize the mechanisms of insecticide resistance in field populations from Brazil and Peru and to evaluate how host resistance and essential oils affect the pupal parasitoids Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae and Spalangia simplex, two alternatives to chemical control. In the first article, seven field populations and the susceptible (POPUFLA) and resistant (POPNEP) reference populations were evaluated with diagnostic bioassays with deltamethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin, thiamethoxam and their mixture, synergist bioassays with PBO, TPP and DEM and enzyme assays, and ten populations were screened by sequencing of the Vssc and CYP6D1 genes. Reduced susceptibility among field populations was restricted to the Peruvian populations, and the synergists indicated P450 monooxygenases and esterases as the main detoxification pathways, with a secondary role of glutathione S-transferases. POPNEP had higher glutathione S-transferase and β-esterase activities, the Vssc mutations L1014F and T929I, the latter recorded for the first time in South America, and lacked the insertion in the CYP6D1 promoter found in the other populations. In the second article, POPUFLA and POPNEP were used to describe the development of the parasitoids, to compare their parasitism, offspring production and survival on the two hosts and to evaluate four essential oils. Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae completed development in 15 days and S. simplex in 20 days. Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae parasitized more POPNEP than POPUFLA pupae, whereas S. simplex performed similarly on both populations, and longevity and net parasitism rate did not differ between hosts. Eucalyptus, citronella, holy wood and sweet orange essential oils were toxic to both fly populations, with low tolerance ratios, but they also affected the parasitoids by direct contact and, mainly, through the treated host: sweet orange oil, of low contact toxicity, reduced parasitism by P. vindemmiae by 74%. Resistance in the populations studied is predominantly metabolic, except in POPNEP, which combines metabolic and target-site mechanisms; host resistance does not necessarily compromise biological control; and the compatibility between essential oils and parasitoids cannot be inferred from mortality alone. These results reinforce the importance of local resistance monitoring and of assessing sublethal and host-mediated effects in the integrated management of the house fly.