Abstract
Drosophila suzukii, an economically important pest of small and thin-skinned fruits, has caused annual crop losses up to 20% in the state of Georgia's multimillion-dollar blueberry industry. The known host range of D. suzukii is large, yet the breadth of uncultivated and wild plants that can serve as alternative hosts in the southeastern United States is still not fully understood. Establishing comprehensive lists of non-crop D. suzukii hosts in woodlands near blueberry production will assist in the creation of more sustainable integrated pest management (IPM) strategies. Objectives of this study were to determine viability of wild fruiting plant species to this pest based on survivorship to adulthood and assess D. suzukii short-range preference between cultivated blueberries and wild fruit. Laboratory choice and no-choice assays were performed to determine if D. suzukii could complete its development on wild fruits sampled from the field. Results from our no-choice assays indicated that multiple species of wild fruits surveyed in Georgia were viable D. suzukii hosts including blackberry species, deerberry, hillside blueberry, common pokeweed, beautyberry, elderberry, evergreen blueberry, and large gallberry. Yet, none of these hosts were preferred by adult female D. suzukii as ovipositional substrates when compared to cultivated blueberries. However, these uncultivated species have the potential to sustain D. suzukii populations pre- and post-harvest season. This information can help farmers do more targeted management of these viable alternative hosts from wooded areas surrounding blueberry fields in order to minimize D. suzukii populations.
Highlights
The invasive Asian vinegar fly, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura, 1931) (Diptera: Drosophilidae), commonly referred to as spotted-wing drosophila (SWD), is a global pest of soft-skinned fruits as it has recently expanded its range across Europe and the Americas [1,2,3,4,5]
Oviposition in wild fruits in 2015 ranged from 6.59 ± 0.69 (V. stamineum) to 13.53 ± 1.03 (P. americana), though the overall D. suzukii adult emergence was low in comparison (Figure 1)
By using flies reared from both Rubus spp. and P. americana, they showed that flies prefer to oviposit their eggs in the same species from which they emerged and that this has implications on their fitness [18,42]. Such a trend should be kept in mind when creating future host use assays. This was the first comprehensive study to address alternative hosts of D. suzukii in the state of Georgia
Summary
The invasive Asian vinegar fly, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura, 1931) (Diptera: Drosophilidae), commonly referred to as spotted-wing drosophila (SWD), is a global pest of soft-skinned fruits as it has recently expanded its range across Europe and the Americas [1,2,3,4,5]. Like other Drosophila, D. suzukii use fruits to complete its life cycle and as adult food resources [8,9]. Unlike other Drosophila Fallén, 1,823 species of this fly can oviposit into fresh pre-harvest fruit [2], causing damage before fruits are even marketable Such damage is caused by oviposition wounds, internal feeding of maturing D. suzukii larvae, and secondary infections [2,3,10,11,12,13].
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