Antifeedant and antigonadotropic effects of Ruta chalepensis methanolic extract against Locusta migratoria. Abdellaoui, K., Miladi, M., Ben Marzouk, I., Bahloul, N., Acheuk, F., Chaira, N., and Ben Halima-Kamel, M. (Tunisia / Algeria)

Abstract

The migratory locust Locusta migratoria is one of the most important pests due to its extensive and serious damage to crops in large parts of Africa and Asia. To identify novel new environment friendly products for the management of the migratory locust, experiments were conducted to assess the effect of a methanolic extract of Ruta chalepensis (ME-Rc) on feeding activity and different reproductive phases of L. migratoria. The results showed that ME-Rc caused a significant decline in food intake and insect digestibility. The treatment applied to adult females caused a significant lengthening of the preoviposition period and a significant reduction in both fecundity and fertility. ME-Rc also affected growth and development of oocytes as evidenced by measurements of ovarian weight, length and volume of terminal oocytes and ovarian index. In addition, ME-Rc based-treatments led to disturbances in the incorporation of haemolymph metabolites (proteins and carbohydrates) in oocytes resulting in a significant decrease in their concentrations in ovaries.

Keywords

• Antifeedant
• Locusta migratoria
• ovarian metabolites
• reproduction
• Ruta chalepensis