Stay cool, travel far: cold‐acclimated oriental fruit moth females have enhanced flight performance but lay fewer eggs

Abstract

Acclimation to a particular environment may provide organisms with advantages in that environment. In species with multiple generations per year, acclimation may cause life-history traits to vary with season and between generations. We investigated flight performance, lifetime egg production, and longevity in relation to the temperature experienced during development and adulthood in the invasive moth pest Grapholita molesta (Busck) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). We found that females that developed at low temperature had good flight abilities when they were flown at low, intermediate, and high temperatures. At high temperature, females that developed at high temperature did not outperform females that developed at low temperature. Flight performance was generally poor at low ambient temperature. Our findings suggest a beneficial acclimation effect, occurring at low temperature. Nonetheless, there were potential costs of development at low temperature: development took longer, resulting in smaller females, which laid fewer eggs. Given temporal and spatial temperature variability in the field, dispersal potential should not be considered homogeneous within populations or across generations. Our results suggest that the most favourable time periods for female dispersal are at the beginning and towards the end of the host crop growing season, which has potential implications for monitoring the occurrence and range expansion of this invasive pest species.

Population genetics affected by pest management using fruit‐bagging: a case study with Grapholita molesta in China

“…Although we carefully chose isolated commercial orchards for our study, we could not exclude the existence of scattered single host trees, e.g., in backyards of village houses, which could have served as stepping stones for dispersing oriental fruit moths. Grapholita molesta is known as a relatively weak flyer (Yetter & Steiner, ; Hughes & Dorn, ; Sciarretta & Trematerra, ), but it has been shown that both abiotic (Hughes et al., ; Ferrer et al., , ) and biotic environment factors (Pinero & Dorn, ) can stimulate flight, especially in the later part of the season.…”

Integrated management of tortricid pests of tree fruit

“…Tortricid adults readily disperse among both managed agricultural habitats and a variety of surrounding unmanaged host plants (Jeanneret and Charmillot 1995;Knight 2001;Thistlewood and Judd 2003a;Ellis and Hull 2013;Ferrer et al 2014). Urban encroachment into traditional agricultural areas affects the proximity of unmanaged hosts for tortricids impacting orchard management and production, for example homeowners want their own fruit trees but not the added labour of growing their trees to mitigate risks to commercial crops.…”

Constraints to Vegetable Production Resulting from Pest and Diseases Induced by Climate Change and Globalization: A Review

“…Insect pests that are most affected by climate change and global warming are those that are ectothermic because they can quickly acclimatize to different environmental conditions. This gives them an advantage to multiply aggressively, increasing their threat to crop production (Ferrer et al, 2014). Examples of insect pests that easily adapt to high temperatures include, aphids, whitefly and stem borers .…”

“…In the UK, the lepidopteran moths and butterflies have been reported each year to have increased in migration rate and this has been linked to increased temperatures in the south west Europe (Sparks et al, 2007). Grapholita molesta (Busck), a lepidopterian moth has the potential to adapt to high temperature environment and has been found to have good flying abilities under high temperature (Ferrer et al, 2014). In Africa, smallholder farmers are most likely to be vulnerable to this factor because severe high temperatures are predicted to be experienced in African areas (Biber-Freudenberger et al, 2016).…”