Factors determining the structure and diversity of parasitoid complexes in tephritid fruit flies

Abstract

The relative importance of phylogenetic affinity of hosts versus their ecological characteristics in determining the composition of their parasitoid complexes was examined using the parasitoid complexes of six species of frugivorous fruit flies from Central Europe. The hosts were four Rhagoletis and two other trypetine species, ranging in their relatedness from host races to members of different genera. They also differed in ecological characteristics, utilizing host plants of three different families, and developing either as pulp- or seedfeeders inside the host fruit. These features made it feasible to test the following pair of hypotheses. The ecological hypothesis predicts that ecological traits such as host-plant and fruit fly phenologies and host-fruit texture should be more important for the composition of parasitoid complexes than the taxonomic relatedness of the fly species. Assuming that ecological relationships do not parallel phylogenetic ones, the alternative phylogenetic hypothesis predicts the opposite. In fruit and soil samples, taken between 1983 and 1989, three guilds of parasitoids comprising 20 species were found: guild 1 - koinobiotic larval parasitoids (e.g. Opius spp., which attack the host larvae but develop inside the host puparia); guild 2 - idiobiotic larval parasitoids (e.g. Pteromalus spp., which consume the host larvae at once); and guild 3 - idiobiotic puparium parasitoids (e.g. Phygadeuon spp.). Although some results support the phylogenetic hypothesis, the majority of results support the ecological hypothesis.

Diapause in fruit fly parasitoids in the Recôncavo Baiano, Brazil

“…Diapause in fruit fly parasitoids has been reported in temperate regions (Prokopy 1968, Maier 1981, AliNiazee 1985, Hoffmeister 1992, Gut & Brunner 1994. In tropical environments, this phenomenon has been poorly studied in fruit fly and associated parasitoids (Aluja et al 1998).…”

Description of the Immature Stages of Eurytoma sivinskii Gates and Grissell (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae), an Ectoparasitoid of Anastrepha (Diptera: Tephritidae) Pupae in Mexico

“…Two ichneumonid subfamilies, Diplazontinae and Orthocentrinae, are specialized on dipterous hosts of Syrphidae and Mycetophilidae, and most other host records from Diptera belong to Cryptinae and Pimplinae (Hoffmeister 1992;Hagley et al 1993). The present study reports, for the first time, a Calliephialtes species associated with Diptera, representing one of the few detailed records of an ichneumonid parasitoid on Tephritidae.…”

“…Furthermore, it seems that C. sittenfeldae is a widely distributed species, as it was found on altitudes ranging from 237 m to 924 m in Veracruz. Some species of ichneumonid wasps were reared from tephritids, especially in Europe and North America; almost all these host records belong to idiobiotic puparium ectoparasitoids of Cryptinae, mostly the genera Phygadeuon, which attack hosts after pupation in the soil (e.g., Hoffmeister 1992;Hagley et al 1993). According to Stibick (2004), Pimpla pomorum in Spain and Isurgus sp.…”

Structure and function of a non-interactive, reactive insect-plant system

“…orchards). There is also considerable literature focusing on separate population parameters of economically unimportant species under natural conditions (Boller et al 1970;Wasbauer 1972;Boller and Prokopy 1976;Roitberg et al 1982;ZwoÈ lfer 1983;Homeister 1992a;Prokopy and Bush 1993;Leclaire and Brandl 1994). Here, a long-term study was carried out on the population biology of a commercially unimportant Rhagoletis species living in fairly natural habitats.…”