Physiological integration plays key role in cranberry (Ericales: Ericaceae) for tolerance of damage by Dasineura oxycoccana (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae).

Understanding the mechanisms by which plants tolerate herbivory is important in the study of insect-plant interactions. In cranberry, current season growth has been identified as the main source of photosynthate for the developing fruits. Feeding injury by larvae of cranberry tipworm, Dasineura oxycoccana Johnson, disrupts the apical growth of cranberry shoots or uprights, but does not impact fruit output. To study the effects of experimentally depleting photosynthate available from sources other than the current season growth on fruit output, we girdled tipworm-injured uprights. This technique enabled us to estimate the contribution of current season growth in supplying photosynthate to developing fruits in tipworm-injured uprights. The mean fruit weight declined by >55% in those tipworm-injured uprights that were limited to photosynthate from only the current season growth (girdled uprights). The result was consistent between two phenologically different cultivars of cranberry, one a native selection from wild cranberry stands ('Howes') and the other a hybrid ('Stevens'). In addition, fruit weight was positively correlated to current season leaf area in the girdled uprights only. These results strongly suggest that physiological integration among the different sources of photosynthate plays a key role in the tolerance of tipworm feeding injury for fruit output in cranberry.

Impact of early season apical meristem injury by gall inducing tipworm (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) on reproductive and vegetative growth of cranberry.

Larvae of cranberry tipworm, Dasineura oxycoccana Johnson, disrupt early season growth of cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton) uprights or shoots by feeding on apical meristem tissue. A 2-yr field study was carried out at three different locations to determine the impact of tipworm feeding injury on the reproductive and vegetative growth of two cranberry cultivars ('Howes' and 'Stevens') in Massachusetts. In addition to tipworm-injured and intact control uprights, an artificial injury treatment simulating tipworm feeding was also included. Individual uprights of cranberry exhibited tolerance to natural (tipworm) and simulated apical meristem injury in the current growing season (fruit production) and results were corroborated by a greenhouse study. In the field study, weight of fruit was higher in tipworm-injured uprights as compared with intact control uprights at the sites with Howes. However, majority of injured uprights (tipworm and simulated) did not produce new growth from lateral buds (side-shoots) before the onset of dormancy. In the next growing season, fewer injured uprights resumed growth and produced flowers as compared with intact uprights at two of the three sites. We suggest that multiple-year studies focusing on whole plant response to tipworm herbivory will be required to determine the costs of chronic feeding injury over time.

Injury to apical meristem of cranberry by Dasineura oxycoccana (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) reduces production of floral-units in the next growing season.

Cranberry tipworm, Dasineura oxycoccana Johnson (a gall-making fly), disrupts normal growth of cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton) by injuring the apical meristem of shoots or uprights. The impact of larval feeding injury on reproductive parameters of cranberry was determined, from one growing season to next, at upright (Maine and Massachusetts, 2008-2009) and plot levels (Massachusetts, 2009-2010 and 2010-2011). We also estimated the proportions of uprights injured because of tipworm feeding at several cranberry production sites (Massachusetts and Maine) and the proportions of uprights that produced flowers and fruits in the next growing season. Tipworm-injured uprights tagged at the end of the growing season did not produce floral-units (following year) across sites in both Massachusetts and Maine. There was significant variation among the sampled sites in the proportions of tipworm-injured uprights and also in the proportions of uprights with flowers in the next growing season (Massachusetts and Maine). A trend was apparent wherein sites with higher tipworm injury levels had relatively lower flowering proportions in the next growing season. However, sites in Massachusetts did not differ in the proportions of uprights that set fruit and in a replicated study, significant reduction in tipworm injury at plot level (using insecticide) did not impact flower and fruit production in the next growing season.

Sex pheromone of cranberry fruitworm,Acrobasis vaccinii riley (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae).

The following compounds and (approximate ratios) were identified in sex pheromone gland extracts of femaleAcrobasis vaccinii Riley by comparison of gas chromatography-mass spectrometric traces with those of synthetic standards: (E,Z)-, (Z,E)-, (Z,Z), and (E,E)-8, 10-pentadecadien-l-ol acetates (100:1:2:12), a dodecen-l-ol acetate (8), (Z)-8-, (Z)-9-, and (E)-9-pentadecen-l-ol acetates (3:23:4), two heptadecen-l-ol acetates (4:4), tetradecyl, pentadecyl, hexadecyl, and heptadecyl acetates (3:15:10:8), dodecan-l-ol (6), tetradecan-l-ol (5), and hexadecan-l-ol (23). The amount of (E,Z)-8, 10-pentadecadien-l-ol acetate (E8,Z10-15:Ac) in the extract was about 0.5 ng/female. Electroantennographic analysis of gas chromatographic fractions of female sex pheromone gland extract showed that the fraction containingE8,Z10-15:Ac elicited the greatest response. Alone,E8,Z10-15:Ac failed to elicit upwind flight of males in flight-tunnel tests, and traps baited with it did not catch males in field experiments. WhenE8,Z10-15:Ac was combined with (E)-9-pentadecen-l-ol acetate (100:4), male upwind flight response in flight-tunnel tests was equivalent to those obtained with extract of female sex pheromone glands (synthetic, 62%; natural, 51%), but the percent of males flying upwind that contacted the source was lower (synthetic, 47%; natural, 88%). The lower percent of source contact elicited by the synthetic pheromone could be a result of the difference in isomer ratios of 8,10-15:Ac in the natural and synthetic pheromone or could indicate that the synthetic pheromone is incomplete. Traps baited with the 100:4 combination caught large numbers of males in field experiments.

Residual activity of oviposition-deterring pheromone inRhagoletis pomonella (Diptera: Tephritidae) and female response to infested fruit.

Under dry conditions, oviposition-deterring pheromone (ODP) of the apple maggot fly (Rhagoletis pomonella Walsh) on host fruit proved deterrent to ovipositing females for at least three weeks, with a half-life of ca. 11 days. There was no difference in decline of residual activity under lab vs. field conditions or between fly-deposited ODP vs. an application of a water extract of ODP. A decline in pheromone activity resulted from exposure to both natural and simulated rainfall. For natural rainfall, greatest losses (50- 61%) in activity resulted from high-intensity rains, with substantially less activity lost (13-35%) following light or moderate intensity rains.R. pomonella females discriminated against fruit without ODP but with conspecific larvae. Discrimination against infested fruit was manifested within fewer days following infestation of small fruit (9 mm diam.) as compared to larger fruit (15 mm diam.).

Variation in host fruit volatiles attractive to apple maggot fly,Rhagoletis pomonella.

We conducted a comparative study of volatiles produced by wholeCrataegus hawthorn fruit and four cultivars of apple (Royal Red Delicious, Red Astrachan, McIntosh, and Wealthy) and determined quantitative and qualitative changes of volatiles associated with fruit ripening. Within the approximate range of the GLC fraction known to elicit behavioral activity in the apple maggot fly,Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh) (Diptera: Tephritidae), 52 esters were identified.

Associative learning in egglaying site selection by apple maggot flies.

Evidence is presented demonstrating that associative learning during oviposition in Crataegus or apple hosts can significantly influence the propensity of apple maggot flies to accept or reject these hosts in future encounters. The data suggest that within resource patches of a given host type there may be an enhancement of foraging efficiency.