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An ecological interaction between citrus fruit, Penicillium moulds and Drosophila immigrans Sturtevant (Diptera: Drosophilidae)
Author(s) -
ATKINSON W. D.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
ecological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.865
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1365-2311
pISSN - 0307-6946
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2311.1981.tb00623.x
Subject(s) - biology , drosophila (subgenus) , drosophilidae , drosophila melanogaster , botany , melanogaster , citrus fruit , zoology , biochemistry , gene
. 1. Potential Drosophila breeding sites were collected from a fruit market, and the adults allowed to emerge from them. 2. D.immigrans and D.melanogaster were the species with the highest frequency of emergences from citrus fruit. 3. D.immigrans was especially associated with citrus fruits infected with Penicillium italicum or P.digitatum , two specialist moulds of citrus. D.melanogaster was more often found in uninfected fruit. 4. In the laboratory D.immigrans larvae survived better than D.melanogaster larvae on Penicillium‐infected citrus fruit. 5. These adaptations suggest that D.immigrans may have originally evolved as a citrus specialist, becoming a domestic species as these fruits were exploited commercially.