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Competition between Diachasmimorpha kraussii and Fopius arisanus in Bactrocera tryoni: does native parasitoid-host association matter?

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Abstract

In Australia Fopius arisanus (Sonan) is an established, but exotic fruit fly egg-larval-pupal parasitoid which co-occurs with Diachasmimorpha kraussii (Fullaway), a native larval-pupal fruit fly parasitoid: both attack the native fruit fly Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt). In interactions involving evolutionary novel host-parasitoid associations, F. arisanus consistently out-competes other parasitoid species, including D. kraussii. However, in fruit fly-parasitoid systems where there is co-evolutionary history between parasitoids and their hosts, competitive hierarchies can vary. In this study we investigated the outcome of competition between F. arisanus and D. kraussii within B. tryoni, to test whether the close evolutionary relationship between D. kraussii and B. tryoni might circumvent the competitive advantage of F. arisanus. Consistent with previous research, and despite the evolutionary relationship, dissection of multiparasitized B. tryoni larvae showed that D. kraussii was invariably suppressed by F. arisanus. A total of 47% and 74% of the eggs of D. kraussii in presence of F. arisanus were killed within a span of 24 h and 48–72 h, respectively. However, parasitoid emergence from fruit fly hosts exposed sequentially to F. arsianus and D. kraussii suggest that D. kraussii females are able to discriminate hosts already parasitized by F. arisanus. Results show that the co-evolutionary relationship between B. tryoni and D. kraussii does not help overcome the early-acting advantage of the egg parasitoid F. arisanus. Though F. arisanus may not have completely displaced D. kraussii in its native habitat, simultaneous inundative releases of these two parasitoid species (currently under consideration) might not help increase B. tryoni parasitism levels.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of Ms Thelma Peek (Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries) who kindly supplied the B. tryoni pupae used to establish experimental cultures. K.M. was supported to undertake a PhD through an Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR) John Allwright Fellowship. A.R.C. was supported in the manuscript preparation stage of this work by Hort Innovation grant MT19003 Parasitoids for the management of fruit flies in Australia. Funding agencies played no role in the design or interpretation of this project.

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  1. School of Biology and Environmental Science, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), GPO Box 2434, Brisbane City, QLD, 4001, Australia

    Kiran Mahat & Anthony R. Clarke

  2. National Plant Protection Centre, Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Thimphu, Bhutan

    Kiran Mahat

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Mahat, K., Clarke, A.R. Competition between Diachasmimorpha kraussii and Fopius arisanus in Bactrocera tryoni: does native parasitoid-host association matter?. BioControl 66, 297–306 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-020-10068-1

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