The temporal pattern of mating behavior of the fruit fly, Anastrepha zenildae in the laboratory
1 Laboratório de Cronobiologia, Departamento de Fisiologia; Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte
2 Laboratório de Biologia Comportamental, PPG em Psicobiologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte
3 Laboratório de Biologia Evolutiva de Insetos, Departamento de Biologia Celular e Genética, Universidade Federal
do Rio Grande do Norte
Abstract
The state of Rio Grande do Norte is an important fruit–producing and exporting area in northeastern Brazil. The success of this industry depends on fruit fly population control, especially in fly–free exporting zones. However, many fruits are not exported because of quarantine restrictions imposed by importing countries. A survey in the state has detected a considerable increase of the fruit fly, Anastrepha zenildae Zucchi (Diptera: Tephritidae), probably a result of the introduction of irrigated guava orchards that make fruit available all year. Knowledge of the sexual behavior of Tephritidae has great importance to pest control programs, particularly those that employ the Sterile Insect Technique. In order to characterize the reproductive behavior of A. zenildae, 32 individuals (16 males; 16 females) in each of six generations were submitted to an artificial 12:12 L:D cycle (750: < 1 lux, lights on 07:00-19:00) and observed over their lifetimes. The courtship and copulation occurred in leks and the episodes varied with the time of day, courtship being most frequent between zeitgeber time (ZT) 3 and ZT 7, peaking at ZT 5-6. Copulations occurred between ZT 2 and ZT 8, with a higher frequency between ZT 5-7 and a peak at ZT 6. Mean duration was 0.28 ± 0.03 min/male (range: 5-163 min). Males in the leks attempted to copulate mainly between ZT 3 and ZT 7 with a peak at ZT 6, and males outside leks peaked at ZT 7. The different timing of sexual behaviors among related sympatric species, including A. zenildae, may contribute to species isolation.
Keywords: copulation, courtship, reproductive isolation, temporal isolation
Correspondence:
a lalmeida19@yahoo.com.br,
b arrilton@gmail.com,
c enorma_helena@yahoo.com.br,
d jmsouza@cb.ufrn.br,
e amenezes@cb.ufrn.br, *Corresponding author
Editor: Oliver Yves Martin was Editor of this paper.
Received: 22 July 2010 | Accepted: 21 December 2010 | Published: 9 November 2011
Copyright: This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed.
ISSN: 1536-2442 | Volume 11, Number 151
De Almeida LM, Araújo A, Mendes NHD, de Souza JMGA, Menezes AAL. 2011. The temporal pattern of mating behavior of the fruit fly, Anastrepha zenildae in the laboratory. Journal of Insect Science 11:151 available online: insectscience.org/11.151
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