Automated egg-collecting and pupa-separator system for medfly mass-rearing facilities

The new automated egg-collecting system and pupa-separator device described here substantially reduces labour during medfly [ Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae)] mass production. The egg-collecting system gathers eggs dropping from the cage's oviposition net into a continuous stream of water, after which they accumulate in an egg-collecting sieve. The system provides an optimal environment for eggs, keeping them in a slow stream of well-oxygenated water. A pupa separator was designed to enable the separation of pupae from the pupation medium by sucking off the medium through a slowly moving sieving belt. The smaller particles of pupation medium are removed by a vacuum cleaner located under the circular sieving belt, and the pupae are collected in a collecting box. Quality control tests of the eggs collected and pupae separated have shown that neither system has a negative effect on the quality of the eggs or the pupae.