Male Song as a Tool for Trapping Female Medflies

Abstract

This interdisciplinaray work combines expertise in engineering and entomology in Israel and the US, to develop an acoustic trap for mate-seeking female medflies. Medflies are among the world's most economically harmful pests, and monitoring and control efforts cost about $800 million each year in Israel and the US. Efficient traps are vitally important tools for medfly quarantine and pest management activities; they are needed for early detection, for predicting dispersal patterns and for estimating medfly abundance within infested regions. Early detection facilitates rapid response to invasions, in order to contain them. Prediction of dispersal patterns facilitates preemptive action, and estimates of the pests' abundance lead to quantification of medfly infestations and control efforts. Although olfactory attractants and traps exist for capturing male and mated female medflies, there are still no satisfactorily efficient means to attract and trap virgin and remating females (a significant and dangerous segment of the population). We proposed to explore the largely ignored mechanism of female attraction to male song that the flies use in courtship. The potential of such an approach is indicated by studies under this project. Our research involved the identification, isolation, and augmentation of the most attractive components of male medfly songs and the use of these components in the design and testing of traps incorporating acoustic lures. The project combined expertise in acoustic engineering and instrumentation, fruit fly behavior, and integrated pest management. The BARD support was provided for 1 year to enable proof-of-concept studies, aimed to determine: 1) whether mate-seeking female medflies are attracted to male songs; and 2) over what distance such attraction works. Male medfly calling song was recorded during courtship. Multiple acoustic components of male song were examined and tested for synergism with substrate vibrations produced by various surfaces, plates and loudspeakers, with natural and artificial sound playbacks. A speaker-funnel system was developed that focused the playback signal to reproduce as closely as possible the near-field spatial characteristics of the sounds produced by individual males. In initial studies, the system was tasted by observing the behavior of females while the speaker system played songs at various intensities. Through morning and early afternoon periods of peak sexual activity, virgin female medflies landed on a sheet of filter paper at the funnel outlet and stayed longer during broadcasting than during the silent part of the cycle. In later studies, females were captured on sticky paper at the funnel outlet. The mean capture rates were 67 and 44%, respectively, during sound emission and silent control periods. The findings confirmed that female trapping was improved if a male calling song was played. The second stage of the research focused on estimating the trapping range. Initial results indicated that the range possibly extended to 70 cm, but additional, verification tests remain to be conducted. Further studies are planned also to consider effects of combining acoustic and pheromonal cues.