Catching Flies With Honey(dew): Adult Marsh Flies (Diptera: Sciomyzidae) Utilize Sugary Secretions for High-Carbohydrate Diets

Bistline‐East, Allison; Carey, John G. J.; Colton, Andrew; Day, Michael F.; Gormally, Michael J.

doi:10.1093/ee/nvy155

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Honeydew is an important energy source for fruit flies in nature (Bateman, 1972), and it is likely that the flies actively foraged for honeydew in our mesocosms and thus induced high disturbance stress on the aphids. In nature, such disturbance could come from many other dipteran species as well as other insects that include honeydew as a dietary supplement (Ossowski & Hunter, 2000;Hung et al, 2015;Bistline-East et al, 2018;van Neerbos et al, 2020). Honeydew from R. padi has been found to attract large numbers of dipterans in the field (Monsrud & Toft, 1999).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fly disturbance suppresses aphid population growth

Jensen

Toft

2020

Ecological Entomology

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1. The presence of predators is known to suppress prey populations not only by consumptive but also non-consumptive effects, as it stresses the prey inducing costly changes to behaviour and physiology. However, there is recent evidence that disturbance from non-predacious, non-competing commensals can also negatively affect herbivore performance.2. We initiated populations of cherry-oat aphids (Rhopalosiphum padi L.) with adult aphids in mesocosms containing seedling wheat grass. Following aphid establishment, we added fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster Meigen) at a relatively high density to half of the mesocosms and left the aphids for another five days to reproduce. The experiment was performed over two blocks at 24 ± 4 °C. We hypothesized that a relatively high density of commensals would stress the aphids and reduce their fitness, causing lower population growth and resulting population sizes.3. Aphid numbers were significantly lower in mesocosms with commensal flies after five days of fly presence across the two experimental blocks, documenting that fly disturbance suppresses aphid fitness and population growth.4. The negative effect of fruit flies on aphid population growth must have come from the disturbance that flies imposed on the aphids in their search for food, clearly indicating that the flies stressed the aphids. Thus, commensals may in some cases stress herbivores that cannot distinguish between enemies and other active species in their environment, adding to the overall herbivore topdown control through fitness costs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fly disturbance suppresses aphid population growth

Jensen

Toft

2020

Ecological Entomology

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“…elata may associate opportunistically with specialist and generalist insect herbivores (Hemiptera) to fulfil part or all of their dietary requirements by consuming honeydew (Bistline-East et al, 2018). Such herbivores may be expected to a distribution within a single site ranging from uniform to patchy, depending on the level of homogeneity of the site.…”

Section: Careymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the case of conservation biological control with a single target species, the biological control output may be maximised by specifically designing habitat features to meet the biological and ecological requirements of the desired natural enemy (Van Driesche & Bellows, 2001;Ramsden et al, 2015;Holland et al, 2016). While there has been much research on the biology, physiology, and biological control potential of T. elata in recent years (Hynes et al, 2014a;Hynes et al, 2014b;Hynes et al, 2014c;Bistline-East et al, 2018;D'Ahmed et al, 2019;Bistline-East et al, 2019), the only habitat data for this species to date are provided by a limited number of individual collection records or species lists for the family Sciomyzidae (Chandler, 1972;Blackith et al, 1991;Williams et al, 2007;Williams et al, 2009a;Speight & Knutson, 2012). Amongst the most common habitats where T. elata has been collected are fens (Knutson & Berg, 1971), flood plains and callows (Maher et al, 2014), wet grassland (Carey et al, 2017, and on the margins of turloughtstemporary wetlands unique to the west of Ireland (Williams et al, 2009a(Williams et al, , 2009b.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat requirements of Tetanocera elata (Diptera: Sciomyzidae): case study of a dry meadow in western Ireland

Bistline‐East

Burke

Williams

et al. 2020

Agri and Forest Entomology

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1. Terrestrial slugs are pervasive pests of agriculture throughout temperate regions and have the potential to disrupt the germination of seedlings, cause damage to fruiting bodies of crops, and vector plant pathogens. 2. Tetanocera elata Fabricius (Diptera: Sciomyzidae), a widely-distributed Palaearctic species, is an obligate mesoparasitoid and predator of pestiferous slugs including Deroceras reticulatum (Müller) (Stylommatophora: Agriolimacidae). It has the potential to be developed as a native natural enemy in a conservation biological control programme as an alternative to chemical molluscicides. 3. To better understand the ecological requirements of this species, a detailed observational study was conducted at a site in the west of Ireland possessing naturally occurring T. elata populations. 4. Comparison of local patches where T. elata were recovered revealed no association with plant community composition.5. Taller dead vegetation was associated with T. elata presence throughout the site.Within the area of greatest T. elata aggregation, there was a significantly greater percentage cover of dead vegetation where T. elata occurred. Abundance of T. elata was also significantly correlated to hedgerow proximity. Results of this study are directly applicable for the design of a conservation biological control programme which effectively satisfies the principal habitat requirements of T. elata populations.

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Novel Pipeline for Large-Scale Comparative Population Genetics

Majoros

Adamowicz

Cottenie

2023

Preprint

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This study determined population genetic structure measures, compared these measures across species with different biological traits; and created efficient, reproducible, reusable programming modules that are publicly available for future research. Cytochrome C Oxidase subunit I gene sequences from Diptera (true fly) species from Greenland and Canada were used as a case study and proof of concept. We hypothesized that population genetic structure measures will be influenced by the biological traits of organisms. Data were pulled from public databases, as well as taxon-specific literature. The R pipeline includes fifteen modules that can be adapted and applied to a diverse set of animal groups, geographic regions, genes, and traits. Habitat, larval diet, geographical distance, latitude, and longitude were all significantly related to population genetic structure in Diptera. Overall, this study has created efficient, reusable bioinformatics modules, as well as provided insight into the factors affecting population genetic structure in Northern fly communities.

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Catching Flies With Honey(dew): Adult Marsh Flies (Diptera: Sciomyzidae) Utilize Sugary Secretions for High-Carbohydrate Diets

Cited by 3 publications

References 48 publications

Fly disturbance suppresses aphid population growth

Fly disturbance suppresses aphid population growth

Habitat requirements of Tetanocera elata (Diptera: Sciomyzidae): case study of a dry meadow in western Ireland

Novel Pipeline for Large-Scale Comparative Population Genetics

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