EFFECTS OF EGG LOAD ON FINDING AND ACCEPTANCE OF HOST FRUIT IN CERATITIS-CAPITATA FLIES

Citation
Rj. Prokopy et al., EFFECTS OF EGG LOAD ON FINDING AND ACCEPTANCE OF HOST FRUIT IN CERATITIS-CAPITATA FLIES, Physiological entomology, 19(2), 1994, pp. 124-132
Citations number
41
Categorie Soggetti
Entomology
Journal title
ISSN journal
03076962
Volume
19
Issue
2
Year of publication
1994
Pages
124 - 132
Database
ISI
SICI code
0307-6962(1994)19:2<124:EOELOF>2.0.ZU;2-F
Abstract
In studies conducted on potted host trees in field cages and in the la boratory, we examined the influence of egg load on the finding and acc eptance of high-ranking (kumquat) and lower-ranking (grapefruit) hosts for oviposition by wild-origin Mediterranean fruit fly females, Cerat itis capitata (Wiedemann). By prescribing the periods during which fem ales had access to protein prior to testing, we generated four classes of females having progressively increasing egg loads but not differin g in population origin, age, degree of protein hunger at testing, or a mount of prior experience with host fruit (none). Egg load had no disc ernible effect on behaviour associated with finding either type of fru it but did have a significant effect on several behaviours associated with oviposition after alighting on fruit. Increasing egg load led to increasing propensity to engage in ovipositional-type behaviour on bot h kumquats and grapefruits. There was no evidence, however, to support a hypothesis that medflies would become less discriminating against g rapefruits relative to kumquats as egg load increased. Relative to kum quats, grapefruits were accepted for oviposition by intermediate and h igh egg load females to a substantially greater degree in laboratory c ages than on trees, suggesting that results of laboratory cage experim ents on host discrimination by tephritid flies may poorly reflect diff erences in behavioural responses expressed under less constrained cond itions.