Aversive responses of Queensland fruit flies towards larval-infested fruits are modified by fruit quality and prior experience

Silva, Rehan; Clarke, Anthony R.

doi:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2021.104231

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Thus, we consider it unlikely that cherry tomato was less defended because of its size but rather because of its lower host quality. If so, this study extends earlier work with B. tryoni that shows that females of this highly polyphagous species can consistently rank host species based on differences in host location and how it is utilised (Silva et al 2020; Silva & Clarke 2020a, 2021), a capacity exhibited by some polyphagous herbivores, which remains challenging for theory to explain (Silva & Clarke 2020b).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…Further, and novel for Bactrocera competition research, we manipulated host fruit type to determine if varying host quality influences female B. tryoni competitive behaviours. Fruit quality, as assessed by its suitability for offspring development (Silva et al 2020; Silva & Clarke 2021), directly influences female B. tryoni response time to and memory duration of fruit (faster and longer, respectively, as fruit quality improves) (Silva et al 2020), the likelihood of using the fruit for oviposition (increasing as fruit quality improves) (Silva & Clarke 2020a), and the likelihood of using a fruit with an existing larval infestation for oviposition (high in good fruit, rare in poor fruit) (Silva & Clarke 2021). Given these consistent differences in female behaviour with changes in fruit quality, we hypothesized that females should become increasingly more aggressive and exhibit more antagonistic behaviours as the quality of host improves from poor to medium to good.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Female–female aggression in Bactrocera tryoni (Diptera: Tephritidae) and the influence of fruit quality on combat intensity

Kay,

Clarke

2023

Austral Entomology

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Frugivorous tephritid (Diptera: Tephritidae) females compete over access to fruit for oviposition through aggressive interactions. These aggressive displays are for oviposition site maintenance to reduce the probability of subsequent larval competition. While female aggressive behaviours have been described for several frugivorous tephritid species, studies quantifying behavioural frequencies and sequences and examining how quality of the host fruit might modify the intensity of aggressive behaviours are minimal or absent. We used behavioural analysis software of video playback to describe and quantify antagonistic behaviours between pairs of Bactrocera tryoni females and measured changes in the frequency of behaviours when females were defending three fruit types known to vary in their quality for offspring development. Seven behaviours were identified as part of competitive contests between B. tryoni females, which were not performed in any regular order or with any obvious escalation in the intensity of an aggressive display. Crabbing, [wing] supination and pushing were the most common behaviours, constituting 78% of all observed aggressive behaviours. Increasing fruit quality resulted in aggressive behaviours happening significantly sooner and more often. Our results are similar to previous studies in the types of behaviours exhibited by female frugivorous tephritids but are contrary to other studies in that no sequential pattern or escalation of behaviours was documented. Increased female investment in defence of higher quality hosts aligns with theoretical predictions but has not been previously tested.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female–female aggression in Bactrocera tryoni (Diptera: Tephritidae) and the influence of fruit quality on combat intensity

Kay,

Clarke

2023

Austral Entomology

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“…Similar findings were reported for the congenic Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) (Diptera: Tephritidae) females which were found to be highly attracted to volatiles of conspecific-infested guavas compared to a blank (control) (Binyameen et al, 2021). Conversely, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritidae) did not discriminate between conspecific-infested or non-infested fruits (Silva and Clarke, 2021). In this study, except for non-infested unripe Kent mango, female B. dorsalis were attracted to the other non-infested unripe and ripe mangoes volatiles compared to the control.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…Behavioral assays of Bactrocera dorsalis and parasitoids to tree-attached non-infested and infested mangoes A lot of emphases has been given to the investigation of volatiles of harvested fruits when trying to understand the behavioral dynamics of insects to their hosts (Milonas et al, 2019;Cai et al, 2020;Silva and Clarke, 2021). In our study, the behaviors of B. dorsalis and its parasitoids were conducted on headspace volatiles of treeattached mangoes using a dual-choice olfactometer.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential responses of Bactrocera dorsalis and its parasitoids to headspaces of different varieties of tree-attached mango fruits and the associated chemical profiles

et al. 2022

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Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) is a major pest of fruits and vegetables worldwide with documented losses of up to 100%. Various management techniques including the use of parasitoids, such as Fopius arisanus (Sonan) and Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Ashmead) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) within the context of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach have been deployed for its control. The effectiveness of parasitoids is well understood, but knowledge of the semiochemicals that mediate their behavior, as well as that of the host fruit fly to tree-attached mangoes, is lacking. Here, we first compared the attractiveness of the above-mentioned fruit fly and its parasitoids to volatiles of different treatments (non-infested physiologically mature unripe and ripe mangoes, mangoes newly exposed to ovipositing B. dorsalis, and mangoes on day 7 and day 9 post-oviposition) of tree-attached Kent, Apple, and Haden mango varieties relative to control (clean air). The fruit fly was significantly more attracted to the mango volatiles (up to 93% of responsive insects) compared to the control (clean air). Fopius arisanus was significantly more attracted to mangoes with ovipositing fruit flies (68–76%) while D. longicaudata was significantly more attracted to day 9 post-oviposited mangoes (64–72%) compared to the control. Secondly, we elucidated the headspace volatile profiles of the non-infested and infested tree-attached mangoes using gas chromatography linked to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The volatiles revealed various types of organic compounds with qualitative and quantitative differences. The majority of the compounds were esters making 33.8% of the total number, followed by sesquiterpenes-16.4%, and monoterpenes-15.4% among others. Most compounds had higher release rates in headspace volatiles of fruit fly-infested mangoes. Lastly, we harvested the infested mangoes and incubated them for puparia recovery. The number of puparia recovered varied according to the mango variety with Apple mango registering 81.7% of the total, while none was recovered from Kent. These results represent the first report of the changes in the headspace components of non-infested and infested tree-attached mangoes and the associated differential responses of the mentioned insects. A follow-up study can reveal whether there is a convergence in olfactomes which is significant when developing baits that selectively attract the fruit fly and not its natural enemies and fill the knowledge gap from an evolutionary ecological perspective.

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“…However, we believe this study to have a design weakness in that he inoculated larvae of his different study species ( Bactrocera tryoni and Bactrocera jarvisi ) on opposite sides of fruit without testing if that was the pattern observed in nature. If eggs were laid into the same oviposition hole, as Bactrocera will do (Silva & Clarke 2021), then the potential for larval competition is much more likely.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Larval competition between three endemic fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) of differing phylogenetic relatedness

Kay,

Harris,

Clarke

2024

Austral Entomology

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Within a fruit, fruit fly larvae can be subject to scramble competition, in which density‐dependent effects can influence the fitness of subsequent adults. While there is significant research on tephritid interspecific larval competition, it has been conducted in invasive situations where the species are evolutionarily novel to each other. There has been no published research investigating larval competitive interactions between naturally coexisting, endemic species. We ran laboratory‐based, intraspecific and interspecific larval competition trials involving three co‐occurring Bactrocera species of differing genetic relatedness and also measured aspects of juvenile development rate to test possible mechanisms of competitive difference. Larval density had an influence on intraspecific competition in Bactrocera tryoni, Bactrocera neohumeralis and Bactrocera jarvisi, with a decreasing percentage of pupation with increasing larval density. Interspecific competition between B. tryoni and B. neohumeralis, and between B. tryoni and B. jarvisi was influenced by the interaction between species and density. The intensity of competition between B. tryoni and B. neohumeralis was minimal but high between B. tryoni and B. jarvisi. B. jarvisi produced larger eggs and had faster initial larval growth rates than the other two species, but it took the longest time for pupation to occur. Our results conflict with theory, as the greatest competition was observed between the two more distantly related species (B. tryoni and B. jarvisi) rather than between the two most closely related species (B. tryoni and B. neohumeralis). Further, and contrary to other studies, egg size, hatch rate and larval growth rate did not provide B. jarvisi with a competitive advantage; thus, larval size does not appear to be a mechanism of larval competition between B. tryoni and B. jarvisi.

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Aversive responses of Queensland fruit flies towards larval-infested fruits are modified by fruit quality and prior experience

Cited by 6 publications

References 34 publications

Female–female aggression in Bactrocera tryoni (Diptera: Tephritidae) and the influence of fruit quality on combat intensity

Female–female aggression in Bactrocera tryoni (Diptera: Tephritidae) and the influence of fruit quality on combat intensity

Differential responses of Bactrocera dorsalis and its parasitoids to headspaces of different varieties of tree-attached mango fruits and the associated chemical profiles

Larval competition between three endemic fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) of differing phylogenetic relatedness

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