Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae): Invasive Pest of Ripening Soft Fruit Expanding its Geographic Range and Damage Potential

Abstract

Spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii Matsumura, a native of eastern and southeastern Asia, is a pest of small and stone fruits. First detected in California in 2008, the insect is now found across the Pacific Coast states. Its penchant for attacking healthy, ripening fruit (as opposed to overripe and rotting fruit favored by other so-called "vinegar flies") makes it a potential economic threat to a host of soft-and thin-skinned fruit crops including cherry, raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, strawberry, peach, plums, pluots, nectarines, juice grape, table grape, and wine grape. Coordinated research projects to determine host preference, seasonal phenology, biology, and management options are taking place among entomologists in Washington, Oregon, and California. A description of the pest and initial findings on its biology, life history, known and expected geographic range, management and monitoring techniques, and economic considerations are presented and discussed.

Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in Peaches: is it a problem?

“…Susceptibility to D. suzukii may also dependent on the peach cultivar. Walsh et al (2011) recorded D. suzukii in Asia infesting wild Prunus species, suggesting that some commercially available cultivars may present some degree of susceptibility to this pest. : only BR; **Number of replicates; ***Columns followed by the same letter within each cultivar do not differ by the Tukey test at 1 % probability level.…”

Threatening the Harvest: The Threat from Three Invasive Insects in Late Season Vineyards

“…Other hosts include apples, fi gs, hardy kiwi, apricots, persimmons, pluots, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, raspberries, strawberries, their wild relatives, and at least one native weed, Phytolacca americana L. (Anonymous 1993 ;Bolda et al 2009 ;Acheampong 2010 ;Walsh et al 2011 ) . Reports from Japan indicate that grape is among the most vulnerable fruit crops (Anonymous 2009b(Anonymous , 2010Walsh et al 2010 ) , and that grape is a preferred late season host (Walsh et al 2010 ) .…”

“…The economic signifi cance of SWD in wine grapes remains unclear. However, in Japan seasonal activity was found to be greatest when cherries and grapes were ripening; this occurs in the fi fth and sixth generation of the 10 seasonal generations observed in the Far East (Kanzawa 1939 ;Walsh et al 2011 ) . reported that while blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, marionberry, boysenberry, strawberry, cherry and peach are considered being of prime importance, grapes are also considered at risk.…”

“…Upon its detection in Florida in late 2009, USDA-APHIS declared that it was not a regulated pest, so there would be no eradication program (Lehnert 2010 ) . The spotted wing drosophila was found in California in 2008 infesting strawberries and caneberries (Bolda et al 2009 ;Lehnert 2010 ;Walsh et al 2011 …”

Complete mitochondrial genome of the spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

“…The females have serrated ovipositor, which enables them to pierce most thin-skinned fruits (Walsh et al 2011). D. suzukii is an Asian species that has been recorded in China, India, Japan, South Korea and Thailand (Hauser 2011), but has invaded the United States, British Columbia, Italy, France and Spain (Toda 1991;Hauser et al 2009;Lee et al 2011).…”