From Host Races to Species: Systematics of the Rhagoletis pomonella Species Complex in the Southern United States

农业植物的害虫往往表现出一种趋势， 在新的、以前未受侵扰的植物物种上形成新种群。 一个例子是苹果蛆蝇，这是一种本地昆虫， 最初侵染本地山楂树的果实，但开始 在125年前感染苹果。 作为研究的结果， 在过去的20年里，很明显， 原山楂蝇种群和新种群 苹果的基因是不同的。 这一发现 对农业和进化都有重要意义 生物学 进化生物学预测， 食用植物，比如苹果蛆的数量， 可能会继续积累遗传差异， 变成不同的物种。 这一预测是由 观察到苹果有许多近亲 寄生在蓝莓、雪莓、山茱萸等水果上的蛆 浆果和其他植物。 目前研究的目的是确定有多少人 与苹果蛆有关的物种实际上存在于 美国南部，并确定其遗传相似性， 苹果蛆 这一点很重要，原因有二。 第一、 南方的种类与苹果蛆极其相似 飞行，并将揭示新的进化的第一步， 物种 第二，蓝莓和其他水果的生产 在南方增加和控制这些果蝇 作物受到目前对数量和基本 这些苍蝇的生物学

Insect pests of agricultural plants often show a tendency to form new populations on new, previously uninfested plant species. An example is the apple maggot fly, which is a native insect that originally infested fruits of native hawthorn trees but began infesting apples about 125 years ago. As a result of research carried out over the last 20 years, it has become clear that the original hawthorn fly populations and the new populations on apple are genetically different from one another. This finding has important implications for both agriculture and evolutionary biology. Evolutionary biology predicts that populations on new food plants, like the apple population of the apple maggot fly, may continue to accumulate genetic differences and eventually become different species. This prediction is suggested by the observation that there are many close relatives of the apple maggot fly living on fruits such as blueberry, snowberry, dogwood berries, and other plants. The purpose of the current research is to determine how many species related to the apple maggot fly actually exist in the southern United States, and determine their genetic similarity to the apple maggot fly. This is important for two reasons. First, the southern species are extremely similar to the apple maggot fly, and will reveal the first steps in the evolution of new species. Second, production of blueberries and other fruit is increasing in the South and control of the fruit flies of these crops is impeded by current ignorance of the number and basic biology of these flies.