Alpha‐amanitin tolerance of adult flies of mycophagous and nonmycophagous species in Drosophilidae

Abstract

Mushrooms produce a great variety of defense chemical compounds to protect themselves from fungivores. Alpha‐amanitin is one of such compounds found in some Amanita mushrooms. The present study focuses on the effect of α‐amanitin on adult survival in 17 drosophilid species including mycophagous ones from the subgenus Drosophila and the genus Hirtodrosophila and nonmycophagous ones of the subgenera Drosophila, Siphlodora and Sophophora. The results showed that all the essential fungivores and some partially mycophagous species from different lineages are tolerant to this lethal toxin at a concentration of 50 μg/mL, suggesting that the α‐amanitin tolerance may have been acquired more or less independently of the evolution of mycophagy in the family Drosophilidae.