Effect of Food Deprivation on the Foraging Behavior of Rhagoletis pomonella (Diptera: Tephritidae) Females for Food and Host Hawthorn Fruit

The behavior of released mature female apple maggot flies, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh), deprived of all food for 18–24 h was compared with that of females that had continuous access to food. Assays were carried out on individual field-caged host trees that contained Crataegus mollis host hawthorn fruit and/or vials of sucrose and enzymatic yeast hydrolysate as food, and in open-field patches of host trees that contained hawthorn fruit and/or food. Two hypotheses were evaluated: (1) food-deprived flies would be in a physiological state that would compromise their ability to find food and oviposition sites, and (2) food deprivation would generate a “sense of malaise” or impending death leading to “dumping” eggs in unusually large numbers at the earliest opportunity. Except for a greater proportion of food-deprived than non-deprived females finding or being observed at food, the behavior of food-deprived and non-deprived females did not differ significantly. Neither of the hypotheses was supported by the data.