Prior experience influences the fruit residence of male apple maggot flies,Rhagoletis pomonella

Abstract

Male apple maggot flies spend considerable time residing on individual host fruit as territories on which they force-copulate arriving females in search of oviposition sites. Here, we present evidence from investigations in nature and the laboratory that shows the propensity of males to reside on a hawthorn or apple fruit as a territory is significantly modifiable through prior experience with fruit and, hence, involves learning. Previous studies revealed that after a female apple maggot fly, Rhagoletis pomonella, arrived on a host hawthorn or apple fruit, its propensity to accept or reject that fruit for egg-laying was similarly modifiable through prior fruit-exposure experience and also involved learning. We discuss how host fruit learning in males and females, in concert with genetic-based differences in host fruit residence and acceptance behavior between populations of flies originating from hawthorn and apple, could give rise to a reduction in gene flow between populations of flies on these two host types.