ABSTRACT
Experiments have been carried out in Spain in order to study effects of male age on the reproductive activity of Ceratitis capitata (Wied.) using single pairs. When old males were crossed with young and old virgin females. a very short pre-mating period of about 1 minute was observed, all females were efficiently inseminated and a high daily fecundity and fertility rate was obtained. When neonata larvae, from these crosses, were daily seeded in vials containing a new larval diet larval development time, pupal production, pupal quality and adult emer gence were similar to those obtained from crosses between sexually ma tures males and females emerged at the same time. Daily oviposition of virgin females was lesser than the mated females one.
Males mated with young and old virgin females, after they mated with the same age females, lived longer; the life span of virgin female les was longer than the mated females one.
