Oviposition preference and life history traits in cactophilic Drosophila koepferae and D. buzzatii in association with their natural hosts |
| |
Authors: | Juan J Fanara Antonio Fontdevila Esteban Hasson |
| |
Institution: | (1) GIBE, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria Pab. II., 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina;(2) Departament de Genètica i de Microbiología, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain |
| |
Abstract: | Drosophila koepferae and D. buzzatii are two closely related cactophilic species inhabiting the arid lands of southern South
America. Previous studies have shown that D. buzzatii breeds primarily on the necrotic cladodes of several Opuntia cacti and
D. koepferae on the rotting stems of columnar cacti of the genera Trichocereus and Cereus. In this paper, we analyze the patterns
of host plant utilization in a locality where both Drosophila species are sympatric. Field studies showed an absence of differential
attraction of adult flies to the rots of two major host cacti: O. sulphurea and T. terschekii. However, the proportion of
D. buzzatii flies emerged from the rotting cladodes of O. sulphurea was significantly higher than in T. terschekii. In laboratory
experiments, egg to adult viability in single species cultures varied when both Drosophila species were reared in media prepared
with O. sulphurea or T. terschekii. In addition, between-species comparisons of flies emerged from single species cultures
showed that D. buzzatii adults were smaller and developed faster than D. koepferae. Furthermore, analysis of flies emerged
in mixed species cultures showed differences in oviposition preference and oviposition behavior. We discuss the observed between-species
differences and suggest that these traits are the result of adaptation to specific patterns of spatial and temporal predictability
of their respective preferred host plants: columnar are less dense and less ephemeral resources, whereas the opuntias are
more abundant, and fast rotting cacti.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
| |
Keywords: | body size cactophilic Drosophila developmental time host plants oviposition preference |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|