Kienzle Renate, Rohlfs Marko
Population and Evolutionary Ecology Group, Institute of Ecology, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany.
Insects. 2021 May 9;12(5):424. doi: 10.3390/insects12050424.
is a globally distributed insect that infests many economically important fruit varieties by ovipositing into ripening fruits. The mechanisms underlying host selection, in particular the fly's preference for fresh, intact, and competitor-free fruits, are only partially understood. We hypothesize that females use cues of different fruit properties to rank potential host fruits in a hierarchical manner. We created four naturally occurring fruit (blueberries) categories: (1) intact; (2) artificially wounded; (3) wounded + containing eggs of different species; and (4) intact + exposed to . Individual females were offered several fruits in different two-way combinations of the fruit categories. Females showed a robust oviposition preference for intact vs. wounded + infested fruits, which was even stronger compared to the intact-wounded combination. Females preferred ovipositing into intact vs. intact + exposed blueberries; however, they preferred intact + exposed over wounded blueberries. This implies a hierarchical host preference in , which is determined by heterospecific cues (possibly fecal matter components) and an unknown "wounding factor" of fruits.
是一种分布于全球的昆虫，通过在成熟果实上产卵来侵害许多具有重要经济价值的水果品种。宿主选择背后的机制，尤其是果蝇对新鲜、完整且无竞争者的果实的偏好，目前仅得到部分理解。我们假设雌性果蝇利用不同果实特性的线索，以分层的方式对潜在宿主果实进行排序。我们创建了四类天然存在的果实（蓝莓）：（1）完整的；（2）人工损伤的；（3）损伤的 + 含有不同物种卵的；（4）完整的 + 暴露于……的。给单个雌性果蝇提供不同果实类别两两组合的几种果实。雌性果蝇对完整果实与损伤且有虫的果实表现出强烈的产卵偏好，与完整 - 损伤组合相比，这种偏好甚至更强。雌性果蝇更喜欢在完整果实而非完整 + 暴露的蓝莓中产卵；然而，它们更喜欢在完整 + 暴露的蓝莓中而非损伤的蓝莓中产卵。这意味着果蝇存在一种分层的宿主偏好，这种偏好由异种线索（可能是粪便物质成分）和果实未知的“损伤因子”决定。
