Adult female Anthonomus grandis Boheman became permanently infecund, but males were not affected, when fed various analogues of ecdysone. A trihydroxy, 6-keto steroid was found to be particularly effective and was evaluated extensively as a female chemosterilant. Egg production was suppressed when females fed for only 6 days on diet containing the trihydroxy compound. None of the weevils died, and there was little recovery of fertility High temperatures during treatment and addition of a synergist to the diet favored the sterilizing action. The combined effects of γ-irrardiation and steroid treatment were not completely additive, an indication that the 2 sterilizing agents acted on a common target. Also, the steroid seemed to antagonize the action of the chemosterilant busulfan (1,4-butanediol dimethanesulfonate) when both were given in the diet of the adults. When given in the larval diet, 3 ppm of the trihydroxy steroid lowered the yield of adults, and 10 ppm almost eliminated the formation of adults. Deformities occurred at all stages of development.
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Earle et al. (1970) studied this question.