How Do Female Pest Tephritids Behave During Male Courtship?

ABSTRACT Fruit flies exhibit a complex mating ritual in which males display acoustic, visual, and/or chemical signals to increase their mating success. Females play a central role in this process by discriminating among males, evaluating them during courtship, and deciding whether to accept copulation. However, female behavior during male courtship remains poorly understood. Investigating this aspect may improve our understanding of reproductive behavior in fruit flies, revealing which behaviors benefit male mating success. The present study aimed to characterize female behaviors during male courtship and identify those associated with mating success, using three economically important fruit fly species as models: Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedemann), Anastrepha obliqua (Macquart), and Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann). Using video recordings, we described and analyzed the behavioral units and sequences displayed by females during male courtship. We compared the relative frequency of each behavioral unit between mated and unmated females within each species and examined differences in behavioral sequence length and duration across species. We identified 20 behavioral units in A. fraterculus , 21 in A. obliqua , and 17 in C. capitata . Behavioral patterns varied among species, with A. fraterculus and A. obliqua showing greater similarity to each other than to C. capitata , likely due to their closer phylogenetic relationship. Notably, many female behaviors mirrored those previously described in males.