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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of dietary protein on the mating behavior and survival of male Mediterranean fruit flies (medflies), Ceratitis capitata (Wied.), as a means of enhancing the effectiveness of mass-reared males in sterile release programs to suppress wild populations. Conducted in the laboratory, our study addressed three main questions: 1) Does the inclusion of protein in the adult diet affect mating success of wild and mass-reared males? 2) Are copulation duration and remating tendency of wild females affected by the strain (wild versus mass-reared) and diet (protein-fed versus protein-deprived) of their initial mating partner? 3) Does the inclusion of protein in the adult diet affect the longevity of mass-reared males? In mating trials involving wild flies, protein-fed males had a mating advantage over protein-deprived males. However, the addition of protein to the diet did not …