Contribution of population-level phenotypic plasticity to the invasiveness of Zaprionus indianus (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Abstract

Zaprionus indianus is a species of fl y native to the Afrotropical biogeographic region, which around twenty years ago invaded the American continent. Several studies have shown that local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity of an invasive species in its native range could favour the colonization of new environments. Zaprionus indianus is a holometabolo us generalist polyphagous species that breeds and feeds on the fruits of several different species, which constitute different environments. In this context, we performed a comparative analysis of the phenotypic plasticity of morphological and life history traits in response to seven different breeding environments (i.e. different breeding fruits). The comparison was of native (Africa) vs. invaded ran ge (South America) wild-derived populatio ns . The population-level phenotypic plasticity values related to heterogeneity in different breeding environments for most traits analysed were higher for one of the native range population. This differentiation was also recorded for the ranking across breeding environments of developmental time and wing length mean phenotypic values. In addition, mean phenotypic values pooled across fruit treatments were larger for individuals from the invaded range, which suggests local adaptation. Results defi ne a scenario in which, although not for all the populations analysed, phenotypic plasticity contributes to the invasiveness and local adaptation in native range population of Z. indianus.

Limited behavioral flexibility in oviposition behavior for the invasive fly Zaprionus indianus

“…Previous studies on Z. indianus ’ morphological, physiological, and life‐history traits have proved a high degree of plasticity and flexibility during the geographic expansion to the American continent (Karan et al, 1999; Loh & Bitner‐Mathé, 2005; David et al, 2006b; Loh et al, 2008; da Mata et al 2010; Bitner‐Mathé & David, 2015; Kalra & Parkash, 2016; Girish et al, 2018; Lavagnino et al, 2020a,b,c). The results presented here of a stable oviposition strategy do not follow this pattern.…”

“…The most recent report is form Colombia (Butsca, 2021). Zaprionus indianus is now an established non‐native species in the American continent that maintains stable populations in many natural or semi‐natural environments and often expands its distribution (Commar et al, 2012; Fernandez Goya et al, 2020; Lavagnino et al, 2020a,b,c). Similar to other drosophilid species (Markow & O’Grady, 2005), females of this species lay eggs on rotten or damaged fruits that have been colonized by yeasts and bacteria, behaving as a secondary pest (Lachaise et al, 1982; Lachaise & Tsacas, 1983; van der Linde et al, 2006; Schmitz et al, 2007; Lavagnino et al, 2008; Andreazza et al, 2015; Vieira et al, 2019).…”

Drosophila suzuki: Matsumura (Diptera: Drosophilidae): analysis of experimental conditions for its rearing and study in the laboratory

“…Indudablemente, durante su proceso de invasión, D. suzukii se expone a ambientes que presentan una amplia heterogeneidad, producto de las variaciones climáticas así como el hecho de encontrar recursos nutricionales nuevos. En estos casos, la plasticidad fenotípica podría ser un mecanismo beneficioso para lidiar con el desafío que representa la heterogeneidad ambiental (Shearer et al, 2016;Fanara & Werenkraut, 2017;Schlichting & Pigliucci, 1998;Lavagnino et al, 2020).…”

Relative abundance and use of resources by Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, D. simulans Sturtevant and Zaprionus indianus Gupta (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in localities of northern Argentina

“…e result on orange should be explained: on the one hand, orange resource was sampled in Ituzaingo, wherein Z. indianus was found using other resources (Mango and Guava) as breeding sites (Table II). On the other hand, Z. indianus exhibited a good performance when it developed in orange as breeding resource in laboratory experiments (Lavagnino et al, 2020). us, the absence of Z. indianus in orange could be the consequence of chance since there is no biological explanation to the absence of this species from both orange samples (adult and emerged collections).…”