Model of Postdiapause Development in the Western Cherry Fruit Fly 1

Abstract

Postdiapause developmental rates of the western cherry fruit fly, Rhagoletis indifferens Curran, were determined for various constant-temperature treatments and used in the construction of a simulation model. The temperature-dependent postdiapause developmental rate relationship was modeled by fitting an exponential curve to developmental rates at low to intermediate temperatures and a quadratic curve to developmental rates at higher temperatures. This developmental rate function was incorporated into the model which predicts the postdiapause development of soil-dwelling pupae of R. indifferens as influenced by soil temperatures. From these predictions, the times of the first, 10 and 25% emergence levels, and the mean time of emergence, are predicted for the entire soil column from which emergence occurs. The model was found to be highly accurate for predicting the times of these levels of adult fly emergence.