The influence of gamma radiation rate over the radiosensitivity of five class of insects

This paper was aimed at studying the influence of gamma rays dose rate over the radiosensitivity of Sitophilus oryzae (L.), S. zeamais Mots., Rhyzopertha dominica (F.), Zabrotes subfasciatus (Boh.) and Ceratitis capitata Wied. From the results obtained it can be observed that: a) When adults of S. oryzae and S. zeamais were irradiated with either very low dose rates (35, 63, 154 and 632 rad/hour) or very high dose rates (59,580 rad/hour) they showed an increase in their life expectancies, which decreased under intermediate dose rates (2,750 and 15,750 rad/hour). With R. dominica, however, there was continued decrease in life expectancy as the dose rate increased. b) There was a higher emergence of larvae of C. capitata when the eggs were irradiated with low dose rates (1.7, 6.8, 10.9 and 43.9 krad/hour) and with high dose rates (1,577 and 3,759 krad/hour), while the intermediate dose rates (131,330 and 654 krad/hour) were more effective towards causing egg mortality. c) When adults of Z. subfasciatus were irradiated with low dose rates (1.6, 6.7 and 10.8 krad/hour) they underwent a small alteration in life expectancy, mainly for the male insects, while higher dose rates (43.3 krad/hour or more) did not have any influence. (author)