Mating time and call frequency of males between mass-reared and wild strains of melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Matsuyama, Takashi; Kuba, Hiroyuki

doi:10.1303/aez.2009.309

Cited by 15 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Plants shown to be attractive to melon flies for preferred territories include crop plants such as corn, Zea mays L. (Nishida and Bess 1957;Mc Quate et al 2003), guava, Psidium guajava L., and citrus varieties (Kazi 1976); border (windbreak) plants such as tiger's claw, Erythrina tahitensis Nadeaud (Stark 1995); and weeds such as castor bean, Ricinus communis L., spiny amaranth, Amaranthus spinosus L., and fuzzy rattle pod, Crotalaria incana L. (Nishida and Bess 1957;Kazi 1976). In leks, melon fly males aggregate during late afternoon in the canopies of specific trees and defend individual leaves as their mating territory (Kuba et al, 1984;Kuba and Koyama, 1985;Matsuyama and Kuba, 2009). B.cucurbitae males aggregate on diverse trees at the edge of melon fields at early dusk where they show antagonistic interactions with rival males, defend their marked territories, emit pheromones to attract females and display courtship behaviours.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lekking Behaviour and Male-Male Rivalry in the Melon Fly Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Mir

2016

J Insect Behav

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Most studies on the sexual behaviour of tephritid fruit flies are conducted in laboratory or field cage settings. Here, we present field data on the mating behaviour of the melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett). A number of Tephritidae are lekking species, forming aggregations in which males fight to defend a small territory where they court females and mate. Our results confirm that males of the melon flies congregated and engaged in wing vibration in the late afternoon on non-host plants, such as Ficus carica, Cydonia oblonga and Prunus persica which bordered cucurbit fields. The nature and outcome of male-male aggressive encounters are described, and a high degree of female mate selectivity is documented.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lekking Behaviour and Male-Male Rivalry in the Melon Fly Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Mir

2016

J Insect Behav

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“…For the melon fly Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett), previous reports showed that there is a lack of synchrony in the timing of male courtship and copulation across natural populations (Suzuki and Koyama, 1980;Matsuyama and Kuba, 2009). Employing two-way artificial selection for developmental period in the flies, Miyatake (1995) established two strains of B. cucurbitae with short (S strain) and long (L strain) development times and found that the time of mating differed between the two strains; the S flies always mated at an earlier time than the L flies (Miyatake, 1997a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The clock gene cryptochrome of Bactrocera cucurbitae (Diptera: Tephritidae) in strains with different mating times

et al. 2009

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Differences in mating time between populations can give rise to premating reproductive isolation. Tephritid fruit flies exhibit large variation in mating time among intra-or inter-specific populations. We previously cloned the clock gene period from two strains of melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae; in one the individuals mate early during the day, whereas in the other the individuals mate later. These strains were originally established by divergent artificial selection for developmental time, 'short' and 'long', with early and late mating times, respectively. The deduced amino acid sequences of PERI-OD proteins for these two strains were reported to be identical. Here we cloned another clock gene cryptochrome (cry) from the two strains, and found two stable amino acid substitutions in the strains. In addition, the allele frequency at the two polymorphic sites of cry gene correlated with the circadian locomotor period (t) across strains, whereas the expression pattern of cry mRNA in the heads of flies taken from the short strain significantly differed from that from the long strain. These findings suggest that variation in the cry gene is related to differences in the circadian behaviour in the two strains, thus implying that the cry gene may have an important role in reproductive isolation.

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“…Unless sex is synchronized, elaborate copulation displays by males and choosiness of females are meaningless, and thus the timed courtship is a prerequisite for mating. In other words, if the time of mating during the day of mass-reared and released males differs from those of the wild females, the efficiency of SIT is drastically reduced (Matsuyama and Kuba 2009). In a laboratory experiment, melon fly (B. cucurbitae) lines artificially selected for short and long developmental periods differed in their circadian periods and thus differed in their preferred times of mating in an evening (Miyatake 1997b).…”

Section: Complex Factors Affecting Mating Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insect quality control: synchronized sex, mating system, and biological rhythm

Miyatake

2010

Appl Entomol Zool

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The sterile insect technique (SIT) is a method of eradicating insects by releasing mass-reared sterilized males into fields to reduce the hatchability of eggs laid by wild females that have mated with the sterile males. SIT requires mass-production of the target insect, and maintenance of the quality of the mass-reared insects. The most important factor is successful mating between wild females and sterile males because SIT depends on their synchronized copulation. Therefore, understanding the mating systems and fertilization processes of target insects is prerequisite. Insect behavior often has circadian rhythms that are controlled by a biological clock. However, very few studies of relationships between sterile insect quality and circadian rhythm have been performed compared with the amount of research on the mating ability of target insects. The timing of male copulation attempts with receptivity of females is key to successful mating between released males and wild females. Therefore, we should focus on the mechanisms controlling the timing of mating in target insects. On the other hand, in biological control projects, precise timing of the release of natural enemies to attack pest species is required because behavior of pests and control agents are affected by their circadian rhythms. Involving both chronobiologists and applied entomologists might produce novel ideas for sterile insect quality control by synchronized sex between mass-reared and wild flies, and for biological control agent quality by matching timing in activity between predator activity and prey behavior. Control of the biological clocks in sterile insects or biological control agents is required for advanced quality control of rearing insects.

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Mating time and call frequency of males between mass-reared and wild strains of melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Cited by 15 publications

References 21 publications

Lekking Behaviour and Male-Male Rivalry in the Melon Fly Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Lekking Behaviour and Male-Male Rivalry in the Melon Fly Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera: Tephritidae)

The clock gene cryptochrome of Bactrocera cucurbitae (Diptera: Tephritidae) in strains with different mating times

Insect quality control: synchronized sex, mating system, and biological rhythm

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