Skip to main content
Dryad

Asymmetric reproductive interference of male Drosophila suzukii caused by both male and female Drosophila melanogaster

Chen, Yongzhuo1; Zhang, Min2; Hu, Wei2; Li, Jing3; Liu, Pengcheng2; Hu, Haoyuan2

Published Jun 18, 2025 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bzkh189gn

Data files

Jun 18, 2025 version files 51 GB

Click names to download individual files Select up to 11 GB of files for zip download

Abstract

Reproductive interference, leading to negative effects on fitness, usually occurs within two closely related species which sharing overlapping ecological niches. Our preliminary experiments showed D. suzukii population decreased when reared with D. melanogaster. However, the explanation of this phenomenon is not much clear. Based on the overlapping ecological niches and courtship behaviours of D. suzukii and D. melanogaster, we deduced that reproductive interference was the dominant reason. We found that the proportion of heterospecific orientation time is significantly greater in male D. suzukii (7.5 ± 4.183 %) than in male D. melanogaster (4.439 ± 4.936 %, U=194.5, Z=2.223, P=0.026). The successful mating rate of D. suzukii was significantly lower when the species was reared with D. melanogaster (F1,31=4.303, p=0.046). The egg production of D. suzukii was significantly lower in the combined rearing condition (F1,343=98.623, p<0.001), for D. melanogaster, the egg production in combined condition was significantly greater than in single rearing conditions (F1,354=4.202, p=0.041). The reproductive interference exerted by D. melanogaster increased the heterospecific courtship behaviours of male D. suzukii, causing the successful mating rate to decline and ultimately reducing the number of eggs.