The Roles of Mating, Age, and Diet in Starvation Resistance in (Olive Fruit Fly).

The olive fruit fly ( (Rossi) (Diptera: Tephritidae)), although a pest of major economic importance for the olive industry, has not been sufficiently studied with respect to the factors affecting its survival resistance to food deprivation. In the present study, we examined the effect of the interaction between mating status (virgin/mated), age class (11-20/21-30/31-40/41-50), and diet quality (protein plus sugar or only sugar) on starvation resistance in under constant laboratory conditions. We conducted a total of 16 treatments (2 × 4 × 2 = 16) for each gender.