BACKGROUND Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) represent a major biosecurity threat to the horticulture sector of New Zealand, which is entirely free of these invasive pests. A nationwide surveillance programme is conducted to ensure any incursion is detected as early as possible. A review of the lure dispensers used is reported here. RESULTS Lure dispenser emission trials found that the curre...

The endosymbiont Wolbachia is efficiently transmitted from females to their progenies, but horizontal transmission between different taxa is also known to occur. Aiming to determine if horizontal transmission might have occurred between Anastrepha fruit flies and associated braconid wasps, infection by Wolbachia was screened by amplification of a fragment of the wsp gene. Eight species of the g...

Fruit flies love foods containing yeast. A new study now shows that they are attracted to and have dedicated olfactory neurons for detecting the scents produced by yeast metabolizing common phenolic compounds in fruit.

A new study reveals how Drosophila uses their sense of smell to decide on where to lay their eggs. These results have exciting implications for the evolution of fruit preference and parasitoid avoidance in fruit flies.

Aggression is used by essentially all species of animals to gain access to desired resources, including territory, food, and potential mates: Fruit flies are no exception. In Drosophila, both males and females compete in same sex fights for resources, but only males establish hierarchical relationships. Many investigators now study aggression using the fruit fly model, mainly because (a) aggres...

Tephritid fruit flies comprise the most important group of quarantined pests of fresh produce. Most quarantine treatments of fresh agricultural commodities are directed against these pests, and considerable effort in detection, trapping, and population control is expended worldwide to prevent these pests from invading new territories. Ionizing radiation has been studied for 70 yr for its possib...

A prerequisite for the evolutionary stability of pollinating seed-consuming mutualisms is that each partner benefits from the association. However, few studies of such mutualism have considered the benefit gained by the pollinators. Here, we determined how the pollinating seed-predators ensure the provisioning of their offspring in the recently discovered mutualism between Rheum nobile and Brad...

Fly-to-fly transmission of conidia of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae and the effect of fungal infection on the reproductive potential of females surviving infection were investigated in three fruit fly species, Ceratitis cosyra, C. fasciventris, and C. capitata. The number of conidia picked up by a single fruit fly was determined in C. cosyra. The initial uptake (Day 0) of c...

Selenoproteins are essential in vertebrates because of their crucial role in cellular redox homeostasis, but some invertebrates that lack selenoproteins have recently been identified. Genetic disruption of selenoprotein biosynthesis had no effect on lifespan and oxidative stress resistance of Drosophila melanogaster. In the current study, fruit flies with knock-out of the selenocysteine-specifi...

Drosophila melanogaster has long been a prime model organism for developmental biologists. During their work, they have established a large collection of techniques and reagents. This in turn has made fruit flies an attractive system for many other biomedical researchers who have otherwise no background in fly biology. This review intends to help Drosophila neophytes in setting up a fly lab. It...