About This Project

True fruit flies (Tephritidae) have an economic impact of hundreds of millions (USD) in the USA alone. They feed on a variety of agricultural products and are difficult to manage with pesticides without disrupting management of other pests. I am studying how temperature affects interactions between the flies, competitors, and natural enemies. This study will help us understand the ecology of these flies as well as better control these economically significant pests.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Competition and natural enemies are both important regulators of plant-eating insects, and they are likely drivers of host races and speciation, as new hosts can offer resources with less competition and natural enemies. Temperature affects the relative importance of how natural enemies affect these insects. Global temperatures have been rising, and climate change has potentially broad effects on the interactions between host plant, competition, natural enemies, and herbivorous insects, including tephritid fruit flies. Insect development and metabolism is affected by temperature, which can complicate interactions between competitors, increase host plant and host insect volatiles used by natural enemies to find the fly larvae, and alter both fly and parasitoid behavior.

What is the significance of this project?

True fruit flies (Tephritidae) have specialized to develop in a variety of host plants. Many are pests of important agricultural products, with worldwide economic damages for prevention and control in the billions (USD) annually. Their host specialization is also evolutionary interesting, with some (such as the apple maggot, Rhagoletis pomonella) being often-cited examples of sympatric speciation, in which they diverge without a physical barrier. In a changing climate, and with worldwide imports and exports of produce, tephritids have spread to new locations, with some (such as the medfly, Ceratitis capitata) becoming especially important pests.

What are the goals of the project?

The funding will be used to purchase equipment. All labor and analysis will be done by myself. Specifically, I will use greenhouse plastic to form passive heating systems in apple and hawthorn trees, as well as in horsenettle (Solanum carolinense) and cherry peppers to test the effects of temperature on competitive interactions and parasitism rates. Insect netting will be used as a control, to provide a similar barrier without increasing temperature. Data loggers will be used to track temperature, as well as to ensure that any rise in humidity is not significant enough to provide a confounding factor. Plant pots will be used to grow some of the host plants in a university greenhouse. Full experimental design can be found here. Start date: 7/1/2017, end date: 9/30/2018.