Sugars available from flowers visited by the adult cabbage root fly, Erioischia brassicae (Bch.) (Diptera, Anthomyiidae)

Abstract

AbstractAnalysis by gas-liquid chromatography showed that flowers open at the time of the first generation of cabbage root flies, Erioischia brassicae (Bch.), contained nectars composed almost entirely of sucrose and fructose whereas those open during the second generation secreted fructose and glucose. There were qualitative as well as quantitative differences in the sugar composition of all the nectars analysed. In both generations, the most highly nutritive sources of nectars, 94% and 86% sugar solutions, were available from the umbellifers Anthriscus sylvestris and Heracleum sphondylium, respectively. Fructose and glucose were also the main sugars on pollen and anthers at the time of the second generation but, in addition, pollen samples contained large quantities of the sugar alcohol inositol. The surfaces of the pollen of the grasses Dactylis glomerata, Holcus lanatus and Arrhenatherum elatius all contained sufficient nutritive carbohydrates for maturation of the first batch of cabbage root fly eggs. One or more of the chemicals found only in water extracts of Arrhenatherum pollen was probably toxic to the flies. To obtain sufficient carbohydrates to mature the first batch of eggs, flies had to probe at least 1–2 mg of grass pollen each day, equivalent to the pollen produced daily by two flowering heads of Dactylis.