Old residents and new arrivals ofRhagoletisspecies in Europe

Abstract

The genus Rhagoletis (Diptera: Tephritidae) comprises more than 65 species distributed throughout Europe, Asia and America, including many species of high economic importance. Currently, there are three Rhagoletis species that infest fruits and nuts in Europe. The European cherry fruit fly, Rhagoletis cerasi (may have invaded Europe a long time ago from the Caucasian area of West Asia), and two invasive species (recently introduced from North America): the eastern American cherry fruit fly, R. cingulata, and the walnut husk fly, R. completa. The presence of different Rhagoletis species may enhance population dynamics and establish an unpredictable economic risk for several fruit and nut crops in Europe. Despite their excessive economic importance, little is known on population dynamics, genetics and symbiotic associations for making sound pest control decisions in terms of species-specific, environmental friendly pest control methods. To this end, the current paper (a) summarizes recently accumulated genetic and population data for the European Rhagoletis species and their association with the endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis, and (b) explores the possibility of using the current knowledge for implementing the innovative biological control methods of sterile insect technique and incompatible insect technique.

The Effect of Winter Length on Duration of Dormancy and Survival of Rhagoletis completa (Diptera: Tephritidae) and Associated Parasitoids From Northeastern Mexico

“…The walnut husk fly Rhagoletis completa Cresson is native to an area encompassing the mid-western and south-central United States to North Eastern Mexico (Bush 1966, Rull et al 2013, Yee et al 2014). The species expanded its range to California around 1926 (Boyce 1933, Berlocher 1984, Chen et al 2006), was introduced to Switzerland in the late 1980s (Merz 1991) and has since invaded most of western Europe (Verheggen et al 2017, Augustinos et al 2019). The walnut husk fly is currently one of the most important pests of walnuts in California and Western Europe (Yee and Goughnour 2008, Solar et al 2019), which together produce 30% of the commercial walnuts worldwide (Shah et al 2018).…”