Empirical evidence of the mediterranean fruit fly movement between orchard types

Abstract

Understanding species movement in the agroecological system is an important theme in ecology. A mark-release-capture experiment was conducted to study the dispersion behaviour of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wied.; Diptera: Tephritidae; Medfly) in northern Israel. Four pairs of pear and citrus orchards were selected for the field experiments. Sterile flies dyed with different colours were released in three seasons during 2015 and 2016, based on the phenological stages of the hosts. The total number of captured marked sterile flies per trap (FT) was approx 300 in both April and August. In November, FT values decreased by about 35% to approximately 200. The wild Medfly that were also captured showed an opposite trend, from an FT of 1.8 and 6.4 in April and August, respectively, to an FT of about 330 in November. Marked sterile flies were captured in both the release and the neighbouring orchard sites. We found that the Medfly migrates from pear to citrus orchards during spring and from citrus to pear during summer, when there are no fruit-bearing trees in the orchards. However, during November, when the wild Medfly population prevails in the area, a clear pattern of migration is hard to identify, perhaps because of a possible interaction with the wild fly's population.

Mediterranean fruit fly population phenological patterns are strongly affected by elevation and host presence

“…Ceratitis capitata survival and abundance in higher elevations are dramatically affected by the continuous, low temperatures in the beginning of the fruiting season that spans the end of spring 44 , 48 , 62 . In addition, it is well known that tropical and subtropical fruits including citrus, that are among the most favorable hosts of C. capitata, are not cultivated in higher elevations 16 , 63 ; hence, C. capitata survival depends mainly on other hosts, such as pome (apples and pears) or stone (apricots and peaches) fruits 44 , 64 . Increased winter survival of C. capitata has been reported in coastal Mediterranean areas 65 , 66 where a plethora of favorable hosts such as citrus are cultivated.…”

Inconsistent effects of local and landscape factors on two key pests in Israeli vineyards

“…Many factors and interactions affect the development of different pests in space and over time in agricultural systems. Among them, there are various landscape‐scale factors, such as landscape composition, heterogeneity and the distance between potential hosts, which were found to affect the occurrence of pests (Beckler et al., 2005; Blum et al., 2018; Karp et al., 2018; Krasnov et al., 2019, 2021; Tscharntke et al. 2016) and pathogens (Ben‐Hamo et al., 2020; Blank et al., 2019; Meentemeyer et al., 2012; Ostfeld et al., 2005; Plantegenest et al., 2007).…”