Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8940-6442

Date Available

10-25-2022

Year of Publication

2022

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Document Type

Master's Thesis

College

Agriculture, Food and Environment

Department/School/Program

Entomology

First Advisor

Dr. Zainulabeuddin Syed

Abstract

Massive economic damage by spotted-wing drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii, results from their unique egg laying behavior. Gravid SWD flies employ a complex suite of behaviors to find fruit with the optimum firmness and chemistry. We tested for SWD attraction to various fruits and found overripe raspberries to be most attractive to gravid flies which was unexpected since they oviposit in ripe fruit. We next tested the same choice assay in a T-maze and found that the results were comparable. We also found discrete odor profiles among the ripening stages. When testing for sugars and CO2 concentrations from field-collections, overripe fruit was found to be the most sugar rich and that there are increased proteins in ripe and overripe fruit. We then raised SWD on three isocaloric diets that differ in proteins and carbohydrates and a Bloomington control. We found that flies reared on the four diets pupate and emerge as adults significantly from one another and that the diets had an impact on activity levels and antennal responses to two yeast-associated odorants. Together, these results indicate that there are more complexities to Drosophila suzukii females than simply choosing overripe fruits as virgins and ripe fruit for oviposition as gravids.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2022.97

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