Attraction of wild and laboratory-cultured dacus oleae flies to small rectangles of different hues, shades, and tints
1975
Prokopy, Ronald J. | ECONOMOPOULOS, A.P. | McFADDEN, M.W.
Responses of laboratory-cultured and wild Dacus oleae flies to small sticky-coated rectangles hung in olive or apricot trees showed that yellow rectangles captured slightly to many more flies than any others tested, including: light, medium, and dark oranges, greens and grays; red; blue; black; white; aluminum foil; slight, medium, or strong tints of yellow; clear Plexiglas; and the top or bottom surface of olive leaves glued to rectangles. We conclude (1) that the flies' response to yellow is positive attraction and primarily to the hue and not the intensity of yellow, and (2) that the flies are particularly attracted toward those yellowish hues embodying the combined properties of highest amount of light reflectance between 520-580 nm (the area of the insect visible spectrum where green leaves reflect their peak energy) and little reflectance below 520 nm. The percentage of released lab flies recaptured on the rectangles was smaller than that of released wild flies. Moreover, lab flies were consistently less adept at distinguishing yellow from red than were wild flies. We have detected an eye color difference between wild and lab flies and suspect a deficiency or imbalance of nutrients or conditions in the artificial larval diet as being the cause of the difference in eye color and hue discrimination ability.
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