Factors influencing release of hostmarking pheromone byRhagoletis pomonella flies

The effect of fly or fruit treatments on quality and/or quantity of host-marking pheromone (HMP) trail substance released by apple maggot flies (Rhagoletis pomonella) following oviposition was evaluated. Among flies, considerable variation existed in the amount of HMP substance deposited, but overall, the amount of substance released on successively offered fruit (over a day or a week) did not change appreciably. Fly diet did not influence pheromone activity. Older flies (28 days) or smaller flies released less or less active HMP trail substance than younger flies (14 days) or larger flies. Females deposited a similar amount of trail substance on large (18-19 mm diam.) or HMP-marked fruit as on small (12-13 mm) or unmarked fruit. Starvation reduced the amount of measurable trail substance deposited but resulted in a more active HMP deposition. Discrepancy between trail measurement and behavioral bioassay results for the starvation treatment indicated that trail measurement results may be misleading under conditions that reduce gut contents of the fly.