Eclosion and adult longevity traits ofRhagoletis tabellaria(Diptera: Tephritidae) andUtetes tabellariae(Hymenoptera: Braconidae) in the laboratory

Abstract

Eclosion times and rates of Rhagoletis tabellaria (Fitch) (Diptera: Tephritidae) and its parasitoid wasp Utetes tabellariae (Fischer) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) held at different chilling durations were determined in the laboratory. Adult fly and wasp longevity were also determined. Adult female and male flies from R. tabellaria puparia chilled for 195 days at 4.8 °C and then held at 23.2 °C eclosed on average earlier than U. tabellariae reared from R. tabellaria puparia. Rhagoletis tabellaria also eclosed significantly earlier from puparia chilled for 150 days than 120 days at 2.7 °C, but U. tabellariae eclosion from the two treatments did not differ significantly. Rhagoletis tabellaria eclosion rates were greater with longer chill durations, but U. tabellariae eclosion rates per R. tabellaria puparium did not differ among chill durations. No R. tabellaria eclosed from nonchilled puparia held at 20–22 °C, but at least 18.8% of nonchilled U. tabellariae eclosed. Female and male R. tabellaria on average survived 52.1 and 83.3 days, respectively, while female and male U. tabellariae survived 37.7 and 28.7 days, respectively. Results indicate diapause and developmental traits of R. tabellaria may be more dependent on chilling durations and less flexible than those of U. tabellariae, a wasp that appears adapted to flies in the R. tabellaria species complex.

Abundances, ecologies, and distributions of Rhagoletis Loew, 1862 (Diptera: Tephritidae) flies in central Washington State, U.S.A. inferred from fly trapping surveys

“…Rhagoletis fausta (Osten Sacken, 1877) (cherries, Prunus spp.) and R. tabellaria (Fitch, 1855) (red osier dogwood, Cornus sp., Cornales: Cornaceae) (Yee et al 2020) and others were rarely caught.…”

Metabolic reserves of diapausing western cherry fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) pupae in relation to chill duration and post-chill rearing conditions

“…Rhagoletis indifferens may have evolved a strategy of nutrient utilization typical of rigid diapausing insects in higher latitude environments, a hypothesis that needs to be tested by studying more insect species, for both chill and no-chill effects. Such species could include Rhagoletis tabellaria (Fitch) and Rhagoletis zephyria Snow, two flies that occupy the same habitats as R. indifferens and that also have rigid winter diapause ( 39 , 40 ). These species can then be compared with R. pomonella and the walnut husk fly, Rhagoletis completa Cresson, species with a very different, strongly facultative diapause ( 8 ).…”