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The sexual calling incidence of wild and mass‐reared Mediterranean fruit fly males, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae), was studied at 25 °C and a photophase of 14 h starting at 0600 h. Wild males fed on yeast hydrolysate and sugar attained sexual maturity earlier and exhibited higher calling activity than males fed on sugar alone. In both sugar and yeast hydrolysate‐fed wild males, calling levels were high during the first hours of the photophase, declined at 0900–1000 h, then increased again reaching high levels between 1200 and 1500 h, and finally declined and ceased after 1600 h. Food deprivation for 8 h or more caused a significantly lower frequency of calling. Irradiated (sterile) and unirradiated mass‐reared males fed on either sugar and yeast or sugar alone did not differ in the age of attaining sexual maturity (maximum levels of calling occurred about 8 days earlier than in the wild …