Fruit flies have evolved mechanisms using olfactory and visual signals to find
and recognize suitable host plants. The objective of the present study was to
determine how habitat patterns may assist fruit flies in locating host plants and
fruit. The tomato fruit fly, Neoceratitis cyanescens (Bezzi), was chosen as an example
of a specialized fruit fly, attacking plants of the Solanaceae family. A series of
experiments was conducted in an outdoor field cage wherein flies were released
and captured on sticky orange and yellow spheres displayed in pairs within or
above potted host or non-host plants. Bright orange spheres mimicking host fruit
were significantly more attractive than yellow spheres only when placed within
the canopy of host plants and not when either within non-host plants or above
both types of plants. Additional experiments combining sets of host and non-host