Tephritidae fruit fly larvae develop entirely in the host chosen by the females. To improve the fitness of their progeny, females would benefit from rejecting previously exploited hosts. Anastrepha fraterculus and Ceratitis capitata are two species of fruit flies having similar nutritional requirements and overlapping in their distribution. Previous studies found that competition between the larvae of these species might reach high levels, suggesting that cross‐recognition would be an adaptive trait. In this work, we tested the ability of A. fraterculus and C. capitata females to recognize and avoid fruits previously infested by both conspecific and heterospecific females. In laboratory behavioural arenas, females were presented with fruits that had been previously exposed to either conspecific or heterospecific females. Then, we conducted choice and non‐choice assays to compare the response of A. fraterculus and C. capitata females to infested and non‐infested fruits. In non‐choice tests, the females from both species rejected fruits previously infested by conspecific and heterospecific individuals. However, the rejection occurred at different steps of the sequence leading to oviposition: A. fraterculus showed a lower rate of visits to infested fruits, whereas C. capitata visited both infested and non‐infested fruits, but the latency to visit a fruit and the rejection frequency were higher and the duration of the visit to infested fruit was lower. In choice assays, the rejection of heterospecific infested fruit was higher than that of conspecific infested fruits, for both species. Our results suggest that, regardless of the sensory mechanism used by females, the recognition of previous infestation is bidirectional and females of both species, belonging to different genera, recognize fruit infested by heterospecifics. These responses indicate that cross‐recognition, supposedly a highly beneficial trait, could be occurring in nature, thus reducing interspecific competition and contributing to the coexistence of these species.

中文翻译：

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同种和异种雌性对果蝇的侵染阻止了两种蝇科果蝇的产卵

蝇科果蝇幼虫完全在雌性选择的寄主中发育。为了提高后代的适应性，雌性将从拒绝先前利用的宿主中受益。食肉阿纳斯氏菌和人头角膜炎是两种果蝇，其营养需求相似，分布重叠。先前的研究发现，这些物种的幼虫之间的竞争可能达到很高的水平，这表明交叉识别将是一种适应性状。在这项工作中，我们测试了A. fraterculus和C. capitata的能力。雌性识别并避免先前被同种和异种雌性侵染的果实。在实验室行为研究中，向女性展示了先前已暴露于同种或异种雌性的果实。然后，我们进行了选择和非选择分析，以比较fraterculus和C. capitata雌性对受侵染和未受侵染的水果的反应。在非选择测试中，两种物种的雌性都拒绝了先前由同种和异种个体侵染的果实。然而，拒绝发生在导致产卵的序列的不同步骤上：fraterculus表现出较低的出没率，而C. capitata既访问了受感染的水果也访问了未感染的水果，但是访问水果的潜伏期和拒绝频率较高，访问受感染水果的持续时间较短。在选择测定中，对于两种物种，异种侵染果实的排斥率均高于同种侵染果实。我们的结果表明，不管雌性使用哪种感觉机制，对先前侵扰的识别都是双向的，并且属于不同属的两个物种的雌性都识别出异种侵染的果实。这些反应表明，自然界中可能会发生交叉认知，这可能是一种非常有益的特性，从而减少了种间竞争并促进了这些物种的共存。