The bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia blocks the transmission of dengue virus by its vector mosquito Aedes aegypti, and is currently being evaluated for control of dengue outbreaks. Wolbachia induces cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) that results in the developmental failure of offspring in the cross between Wolbachia-infected males and uninfected females. This increases the relative success of infected females in the population, thereby enhancing the spread of the beneficial bacterium. However, Wolbachia spread via CI will only be feasible if infected males are sufficiently competitive in obtaining a mate under field conditions. We tested the effect of Wolbachia on the competitiveness of A. aegypti males under semi-field conditions. In a series of experiments we exposed uninfected females to Wolbachia-infected and uninfected males simultaneously. We scored the competitiveness of infected males according to the proportion of females producing non-viable eggs due to incompatibility. We found that infected males were equally successful to uninfected males in securing a mate within experimental tents and semi-field cages. This was true for males infected by the benign wMel Wolbachia strain, but also for males infected by the virulent wMelPop (popcorn) strain. By manipulating male size we found that larger males had a higher success than smaller underfed males in the semi-field cages, regardless of their infection status. The results indicate that Wolbachia infection does not reduce the competitiveness of A. aegypti males. Moreover, the body size effect suggests a potential advantage for lab-reared Wolbachia-males during a field release episode, due to their better nutrition and larger size. This may promote Wolbachia spread via CI in wild mosquito populations and underscores its potential use for disease control. Dengue is a tropical, potentially lethal disease transmitted by mosquitoes. A new control method involves the release of mosquitoes infected by the bacterium Wolbachia that blocks the transmission of the dengue virus to humans. However, possible negative effects of Wolbachia on mosquito reproductive success could substantially slow the spread of this bacterium in mosquito populations, reducing the feasibility of this method. We found that male mosquitoes infected by Wolbachia are equally successful in finding and mating with females within experimental tents and semi-field cages that mimic mosquito natural habitat. Moreover, larger, well-fed mosquitoes were more successful in semi-field cages, suggesting that Wolbachia mosquitoes that are reared in the lab, and are generally larger than wild mosquitoes, might have an advantage during the time they are being released in the field. Hence, in contrast to other control methods (e.g., the use of sterile males or genetically modified mosquitoes), the use of Wolbachia does not seem to compromise male performance, making it a candidate for disease control.

Although examples of successful applications of behavioral ecology research to policy and management exist, knowledge generated from such research is in many cases under-utilized by managers and policy makers. On their own, empirical studies and traditional reviews do not offer the robust syntheses that managers and policy makers require to make evidence-based decisions and evidence-informed policy. Similar to the evidence-based revolution in medicine, the application of formal systematic review processes has the potential to invigorate the field of behavioral ecology and accelerate the uptake of behavioral evidence in policy and management. Systematic reviews differ from traditional reviews and meta-analyses in that their methods are peer reviewed and prepublished for maximum transparency, the evidence base is widened to cover work published outside of academic journals, and review findings are formally communicated with stakeholders. This approach can be valuable even when the systematic literature search fails to yield sufficient evidence for a full review or meta-analysis; preparing systematic maps of the existing evidence can highlight deficiencies in the evidence base, thereby directing future research efforts. To standardize the use of systematic evidence syntheses in the field of environmental science, the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE) created a workflow process to certify the comprehensiveness and repeatability of systematic reviews and maps, and to maximize their objectivity. We argue that the application of CEE guidelines to reviews of applied behavioral interventions will make robust behavioral evidence easily accessible to managers and policy makers to support their decision-making, as well as improve the quality of basic research in behavioral ecology.

Identifying traits that are associated with success of introduced natural enemies in establishing and controlling pest insects has occupied researchers and biological control practitioners for decades. Unfortunately, consistent general relationships have been difficult to detect, preventing a priori ranking of candidate biological control agents based on their traits. We summarise previous efforts and propose a series of potential explanations for the lack of clear patterns. We argue that the quality of current datasets is insufficient to detect complex trait-efficacy relationships and suggest several measures by which current limitations may be overcome. We conclude that efforts to address this elusive issue have not yet been exhausted and that further explorations are likely to be worthwhile.