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The influence of a shortage of hosts on the specificity of oviposition behaviour in species of Dacus (Diptera, Tephritidae)
Author(s) -
FITT GARY P.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
physiological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1365-3032
pISSN - 0307-6962
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3032.1986.tb00400.x
Subject(s) - biology , dacus , tephritidae , cucumis , host (biology) , generalist and specialist species , economic shortage , zoology , ovariole , rhagoletis , botany , ecology , pest analysis , oocyte , fishery , embryo , linguistics , philosophy , government (linguistics) , habitat
. When deprived of their preferred hosts for up to 16 days prior to behaviour assays, three relatively specialized tephritid flies, D. cacuminatus (Hering), D. cucumis French and D. jarvisi (Tryon), retain strong preferences for their particular hosts. Moreover, in the absence of the preferred hosts, D. cacuminatus , and to a lesser extent D. cucumis , will not accept fruits that are outside their normal host range. D. jarvisi readily accepts other fruits in the absence of its preferred host, Planchonia careya , but in common with the other two shows no increase in the number of eggs laid with increasing periods of deprivation. None of these species accumulate oocytes when deprived of fruits. In contrast, the highly polyphagous D. tryoni Frogg. lays more eggs and oviposits readily into a previously unacceptable fruit after 4 days without access to hosts. This change in behaviour is associated with a marked increase in the number of mature eggs carried by females. These results suggest an important difference between the generalist and more specialized species in the physiological control of oocyte maturation. In D. tryoni there appears to be no inhibition of oocyte development once the primary follicle has matured, whereas in the other species each ovariole contains no more than one mature egg. In D. tryoni , the change in behaviour which accompanies this increase in egg load, may influence its propensity to accept unusual fruits, and may help to explain its rapid acceptance of most cultivated fruits introduced to Australia.