Mind the Wound!-Fruit Injury Ranks Higher than, and Interacts with, Heterospecific Cues for Drosophila suzukii Oviposition.

ABSTRACT: Drosophila suzukii 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 D. suzukii 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 Drosophila species; and (4) intact + exposed to D. melanogaster. Individual D. suzukii females were offered several fruits in different two-way combinations of the fruit categories. Females showed a robust ovipositio

SUBMITTER: Kienzle R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8151711 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature