DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18428506
title: Temperature overrides nutritional cues for optimal oviposition decision in a polyphagous invasive insect

description: # SuzukiiOvipositionDecision

 

#### Publication title: Temperature over nutritional cues drives oviposition decision in a polyphagous invasive insect

#### Publication authors: Wendy Destierdt*, Gwenaëlle Deconninck*, José E. Crespo, Esteban Moyer, Vincent Foray, Olivier Chabrerie and Sylvain Pincebourde (* equal contribution)

#### Journal: Journal of Experimental Biology

#### Code author: Gwenaëlle Deconninck

#### Last Update: December 2025

 

This repository houses the code (‘R_script_Step1-4’.R) and data sets that were used for the article ‘Temperature over nutritional cues drives oviposition decision in a polyphagous invasive insect’ published in Journal of Experimental Biology in 2026.

 

ABSTRACT

Polyphagous insects rely on multiple cues to choose oviposition sites, including substrate temperature and nutritional quality that often do not coincide. We examined how females of the invasive fly Drosophila suzukii make oviposition decisions when temperature and nutrition mismatch, and whether infection with the symbiotic bacterium Wolbachia influences these choices. We first quantified female performance (egg number, offspring development time, survival, and mass) on four fruit purees at three ambient temperatures. We then assessed oviposition preferences when either substrate temperature or fruit quality varied independently. Finally, we conducted multi-choice experiments combining thermal and nutritional cues to test which most strongly drives oviposition. Both temperature and fruit quality affected offspring performance. While females were not always choosing the most favorable fruit, they consistently prioritized thermally optimal sites, even when these were nutritionally suboptimal. This behaviour gave partial support to the preference-performance hypothesis, which mainly held for temperature –the factor with the strongest effect on offspring development and survival in no-choice tests. Wolbachia infection enhanced offspring survival and reduced development time. It also altered oviposition patterns, leading to a more even distribution of eggs across fruit, though females maintained their preference for thermally favourable sites. Our findings suggest that the invasive success of D. suzukii could partly result from its capacity to select oviposition sites that maximise offspring performance under variable conditions. More broadly, they highlight the need to study behavioural decisions under conflicting environmental constraints to understand how behavioural flexibility contributes to individual fitness and population persistence in changing environments.

 

R session info:

- R version 4.1.2 (2021-11-01)

- Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin17.0 (64-bit)

- Running under: macOS 13.1

 

Metadata for the data files are supplied below:

 

#Step1 Folder

 

File ‘fecundity.csv’, used for number of eggs:

- ID: id summarising main infos for females D. suzukii

- Milieu: G/F/M/C for Viscum / Raspberry / Mahonia / Blackcurrant fruit purees 

- Temp: 16/20/24 for ambient temperature in °C

- Wol: Wm/Wp for Wolbachia uninfected / infected females

- Jour: Day of observation

- Date: Date of observation

- Om: Number of eggs laid by D. suzukii female in the substrate

- Ob: Number of eggs laid by D. suzukii female on the box 

- Pupe: Number of pupae

- M_m: Number of emerged male flies

- M_f: Number of emerged female flies

- M: Total number of emerged flies

- Total_O: Total number of eggs laid by D. suzukii female

 

File ‘table_OPM.csv’, used for survival:

- ID: id for females D. suzukii

- Milieu: V. album/R. idaeus/M. japonica/R. nigrum for Viscum / Raspberry / Mahonia / Blackcurrant fruit purees 

- Temp: 16/20/24 for ambient temperature in °C

- Wol: W-/W+ for Wolbachia uninfected / infected females

- O: Number of eggs laid by D. suzukii female

- P: Number of pupae

- M: Number of emerged flies

 

File ‘development.csv’, used for development time:

- ID: id for females D. suzukii

- Milieu: V. album/R. idaeus/M. japonica/R. nigrum for Viscum / Raspberry / Mahonia / Blackcurrant fruit purees 

- Temp: 16/20/24 for ambient temperature in °C

- Wol: W-/W+ for Wolbachia uninfected / infected females

- diff_JOM: Development time from egg to adult (days)

- max_OM: Max development time from egg to adult (days)

- mean_dev: Mean development time from egg to adult (days)

 

File ‘poids.csv’, used for mass of offspring:

- ID: id summarising main infos for females D. suzukii

- Milieu: G/F/M/C for Viscum / Raspberry / Mahonia / Blackcurrant fruit purees 

- Temp: 16/20/24 for ambient temperature in °C

- Sex: M/F for male / female

- Poids: Mass of emerged offspring

 

Files 'FIG2_pointabove.pdf' and 'FIG2_pointabove.jpg' correspond to the plot produced by the code.

 

#Step2 Folder

 

File ‘FvsG_raw.csv’:

- ID_female:  id summarising main infos for females D. suzukii

- IDbis: female number

- Framb: Number of eggs laid in R. idaeus

- Gui: Number of eggs laid in V. album

- Wol: Wm/Wp for Wolbachia uninfected / infected females

- Temp: 16/20/24 for ambient temperature in °C

- Total_O: Total number of eggs laid by D. suzukii female

- Proportion FC: Proportion of eggs laid on R. idaeus

 

File ‘FvsC_raw.csv’:

- ID_female:  id summarising main infos for females D. suzukii

- IDbis: female number

- Framb: Number of eggs laid in R. idaeus

- Cassis: Number of eggs laid in R. nigrum

- Wol: Wm/Wp for Wolbachia uninfected / infected females

- Temp: 16/20/24 for ambient temperature in °C

- Total_O: Total number of eggs laid by D. suzukii female

- Proportion FC: Proportion of eggs laid on R. idaeus

 

File ‘GvsM_raw.csv’:

- ID_female:  id summarising main infos for females D. suzukii

- IDbis: female number

- Gui: Number of eggs laid in V. album

- Mahonia: Number of eggs laid in M. japonica

- Wol: Wm/Wp for Wolbachia uninfected / infected females

- Temp: 16/20/24 for ambient temperature in °C

- Total_O: Total number of eggs laid by D. suzukii female

- Proportion GM: Proportion of eggs laid on V. album

 

Files 'FvsC_img.png', 'FvsG_img.png', 'GvsM_img.png' are used for final plot.

 

File 'FIG3_img.pdf' is the plot produced by the code.

 

 

#Step3 Folder

 

File ‘Step3.csv’:

- ID: id summarising main infos for females D. suzukii

- Milieu: G/F/M/C for Viscum / Raspberry / Mahonia / Blackcurrant fruit purees 

- Temp: 16/24 for substrate temperature in °C

- Wol: Wm/Wp for Wolbachia uninfected / infected females

- Egg: Number of eggs laid by D. suzukii female

 

#Step4 Folder

 

File ‘Step4.csv’:

- ID: id summarising main infos for females D. suzukii

- Milieu: G/F/M/C for Viscum / Raspberry / Mahonia / Blackcurrant fruit purees 

- Wol: Wm/Wp for Wolbachia uninfected / infected females

- Temp: 16/24 for substrate temperature in °C

- Egg: Number of eggs laid by D. suzukii female

 

Files 'FIG4.pdf' and 'FIG4.jpg' correspond to the plot produced by the code.

 

For any inquiries or bugs, please contact corresponding author Gwenaëlle Deconninck (gwenaelle.deconninck@icloud.com).