Foraging of Rhagoletis pomonella flies in relation to interactive food and fruit resources

Up to this point, quantitative aspects of the resource foraging behavior of tephritid fruit flies have been examined at what has been termed the first level of a four‐level hierarchical framework. This framework has been constructed to facilitate an operational approach to investigating foraging behavior within a dynamic, state‐variable mode of analysis. First‐level examination involves tracking the behavior of tephritids in situations comprised of a single type of essential resource where just a single factor shaping foraging behavior is manipulated experimentally. Here, we investigated the foraging behavior of Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh) flies at the second operational level in the hierarchy: a semi‐natural environment comprised of patches of potted host trees that simultaneously harbored two types of essential resources: food and oviposition sites. Mature, fed females that were marked and released into the center tree of five‐tree patches remained significantly longer and laid significantly more eggs over two days in patches containing both food (protein and carbohydrate) and oviposition sites (hawthorn fruit) than in patches containing oviposition sites alone. Our findings lead us to speculate that odor of abundant natural food could result in accumulation of both sexes in species of trees whose fruit emit no attractive odor and are not permanent hosts of R. pomonella, but which could receive eggs and support larval development of temporary populations of food‐seeking flies.