Interplay between Drosophila suzukii and native Drosophila species in the Mediterranean area

Abstract

Drosophila suzukii, an endemic to South East Asia, has become an invasive pest starting by the Mediterranean area and in less than 10 years has colonized almost all of Western Europe (Cini et al., 2012). In Catalonia, the species was first detected in 2008 and near Barcelona in 2009 (Calabria et al., 2012). In fly collections performed near Barcelona at the Font Groga site —in the northern foothills of the Tibidabo hill at 400 m above sea level— in autumn 2012 and 2013, the species abundance was reported to be 8 to 10% of drosophilid flies (Canals et al., 2013; Pineda et al., 2014), suggesting that it was well established in the Barcelona area.