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Intra‐tree foraging behavior of Ceratitis capitata flies in relation to host fruit density and quality

We examined the intra‐tree foraging behavior of individually‐released, wild‐population Mediterranean fruit flies (medflies), Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), on field‐caged host trees bearing each of three different densities (0, 3, or 12 per tree) of non‐infested host fruit (kumquat) or each of two levels of fruit quality (12 non‐infested fruit or 12 fruit infested with eggs and covered with host marking pheromone). With increasing den: ity of non‐infested fruit, medflies tended to remain longer in trees, visit more fruit before leaving, oviposit more often, accept a proportionately smaller number of fruit visited, and emigrate sooner after the last egg was laid (i.e. have a shorter Giving‐Up‐Time). Medflies spent much less time, oviposited much less often, and exhibited a longer Giving‐Up‐Time on trees harboring pheromone‐marked fruit than non‐infested fruit. Variation in temperature within the range at which experiments were conducted (25–36 °C) had little detectable influence on foraging behavior. We compare our findings with published findings on the intra‐tree foraging behavior of another tephritid fly, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh), and with current foraging behavior theory. We discuss implications of our findings with respect to medfly management strategies, particularly fruit stripping in eradication programs and use of synthetic marking pheromone for control.