Olive fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) ADH allele selected under artificial rearing produced bigger flies than other ADH alleles

A laboratory study of homozygous lines of 3 alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) alleles of the olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae (Gmelin), showed that the laboratory-selected allele (ADH-I) produced significantly heavier pupae than the others. The allele selected against (ADH-S) produced the lightest pupae among the 3 allele lines. The weight of ADH-I pupae was slightly higher than that of a strain long adapted to artificial rearing and lighter than the weight of wild pupae. Wild flies survived significantly longer than all laboratory strains when adults were maintained on water only or water and food. When adults were starved, wild flies survived for similar or shorter periods than the laboratory strains