Abstract
BackgroundPhytophagous insects differ in their degree of specialisation on host plants, and range from strictly monophagous species that can develop on only one host plant to extremely polyphagous species that can develop on hundreds of plant species in many families. Nutritional compounds in host fruits affect several larval traits that may be related to adult fitness. In this study, we determined the relationship between fruit nutrient composition and the degree of host specialisation of seven of the eight tephritid species present in La Réunion; these species are known to have very different host ranges in natura. In the laboratory, larval survival, larval developmental time, and pupal weight were assessed on 22 fruit species occurring in La Réunion. In addition, data on fruit nutritional composition were obtained from existing databases.ResultsFor each tephritid, the three larval traits were significantly affected by fruit species and the effects of fruits on larval traits differed among tephritids. As expected, the polyphagous species Bactrocera zonata, Ceratitis catoirii, C. rosa, and C. capitata were able to survive on a larger range of fruits than the oligophagous species Zeugodacus cucurbitae, Dacus demmerezi, and Neoceratitis cyanescens. Pupal weight was positively correlated with larval survival and was negatively correlated with developmental time for polyphagous species. Canonical correspondence analysis of the relationship between fruit nutrient composition and tephritid survival showed that polyphagous species survived better than oligophagous ones in fruits containing higher concentrations of carbohydrate, fibre, and lipid.ConclusionNutrient composition of host fruit at least partly explains the suitability of host fruits for larvae. Completed with female preferences experiments these results will increase our understanding of factors affecting tephritid host range.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12898-016-0094-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Phytophagous insects differ in their degree of specialisation on host plants, and range from strictly monophagous species that can develop on only one host plant to extremely polyphagous species that can develop on hundreds of plant species in many families
Larvae of the polyphagous species B. zonata, C. catoirii, C. capitata, and C. rosa survived on a wide range of hosts
Dacus demmerezi and Z. cucurbitae, which are considered specialised on Cucurbitaceae fruits, Fig. 1 Larval survival for seven tephritid species reared on 22 host fruit species occurring in La Reunion
Summary
Phytophagous insects differ in their degree of specialisation on host plants, and range from strictly monophagous species that can develop on only one host plant to extremely polyphagous species that can develop on hundreds of plant species in many families. Phytophagous insects range from those that are strictly monophagous, i.e., that are able to develop on only one host plant, to those that are extremely polyphagous, i.e., that are able to develop on. The link between female preference and larval performance varies with the degree of diet specialization [6] and depends on the taxonomic diversity of studied host plants [6, 12]. Correlations between female preference and larval performance are more often observed for monophagous insects than for polygophagous insects and across and within plant families than among genotypes within a plant species [6, 12]. Larval performance can provide insight into the potential diet breadth of a species [17]
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