Attractiveness and exploitation of decaying herbage by Drosophila in temperate woodland : An experimental analysis

The Drosophila fauna of a deciduous flood plain forest rich in undergrowth near the river Isar, close to Munich, Germany, was surveyed in summer 1990. Decaying herbage baits (decay artificially induced) were set out to study the exploitation of that resource by Drosophila. Sixteen plant species belonging to several families dominant in the collecting area were tested. All attracted and produced drosophilid flies. Ten Drosophila species utilized decaying plant material as breeding sites; at least eight of the ten are polyphagous. Decaying stalks and leaves of Angelica sylvestris (Apiaceae) were examined in detail. In the case of the most frequent species of Drosophila attracted to A. sylvestris, the number of adults collected did not correlate with the number of flies emerging from the substrate. This was particularly true of D. limbata and D. phalerata. When oviposition and larval development of D. limbata and D. phalerata on A. sylvestris was tested in the laboratory, the number of offspring per female was the same in both species. The difference between these two species of the quinaria group in the exploitation of A. sylvestris in the field is therefore not due to differential suitability of the substrate.