Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T07:14:18.862Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sugars available from flowers visited by the adult cabbage root fly, Erioischia brassicae (Bch.) (Diptera, Anthomyiidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

S. Finch
S. Finch
Affiliation:
National Vegetable Research Station, Wellesbourne, Warwick, CV 35 9 EF, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Analysis by gas-liquid chromatography showed that flowers open at the time of the first generation of cabbage root flies, Erioischia brassicae (Bch.), contained nectars composed almost entirely of sucrose and fructose whereas those open during the second generation secreted fructose and glucose. There were qualitative as well as quantitative differences in the sugar composition of all the nectars analysed. In both generations, the most highly nutritive sources of nectars, 94% and 86% sugar solutions, were available from the umbellifers Anthriscus sylvestris and Heracleum sphondylium, respectively. Fructose and glucose were also the main sugars on pollen and anthers at the time of the second generation but, in addition, pollen samples contained large quantities of the sugar alcohol inositol. The surfaces of the pollen of the grasses Dactylis glomerata, Holcus lanatus and Arrhenatherum elatius all contained sufficient nutritive carbohydrates for maturation of the first batch of cabbage root fly eggs. One or more of the chemicals found only in water extracts of Arrhenatherum pollen was probably toxic to the flies. To obtain sufficient carbohydrates to mature the first batch of eggs, flies had to probe at least 1–2 mg of grass pollen each day, equivalent to the pollen produced daily by two flowering heads of Dactylis.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 64 , Issue 2 , October 1974 , pp. 257 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bishop, C. T. (1964). Gas liquid chromatography of carbohydrate derivatives.—Adv. Carbohyd. Chem. 19, 95–147.Google ScholarPubMed
Dalgliesh, C. E., Horning, E. C., Horning, M. G., Knox, K. L. & Yarger, K. (1966). A gas-liquid-chromatographic procedure for separating a wide range of metabolites occurring in urine or tissue extracts.—Biochem. J. 101, 792–810.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dethier, V. G. & Rhoades, M. V. (1954). Sugar preference-aversion functions for the blowfly.—J. exp. Zool. 126, 177–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finch, S. (1969). Studies on the feeding behaviour of the cabbage root fly Erioischia brassicae (Bouché) (Diptera: Anthomyiidae).—Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Birmingham.Google Scholar
Finch, S. (1971). The fecundity of the cabbage root fly Erioischia brassicae under field conditions.—Entomologia exp. appl. 14, 147–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finch, S. & Coaker, T. H. (1969). Comparison of the nutritive values of carbohydrates and related compounds to Erioischia brassicae.—Entomologia exp. appl. 12, 441–453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horii, Z., Makita, M. & Tamura, Y. (1965). Gas liquid chromatographic separation of acids of Krebs cycle as trimethylsilyl derivatives.—Chemy Ind. no. 34, 1494.Google ScholarPubMed
Shellard, E. J. & Joliffe, G. H. (1969). The identification of the free carbohydrates present in some grass pollens.—J. Chromat. 40, 458–462.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wheatley, G. A. & Hardman, J. A. (1968). Resistance of lettuce to attack by lettuce root aphid—biochemical and quantitative aspects.—Rep. natn. Veg. Res. Stn 1967, 72–74.Google Scholar
Wiesmann, R. (1964). Untersuchungen über die Bedeutung der Sinnesorgane am Rüssel der Stubenfliege, Musca domestica L.—Mitt. Schweiz. Ent. Ges. 36, 249–274.Google Scholar
Wykes, G. R. (1952). An investigation of the sugars present in the nectar of flowers of various species.—New Phytol. 51, 210–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar