Microbial hitchhikers associated with spotted wing drosophila

Drosophila suzukii encounters and feeds on diverse free-living fungi that occur within their habitat, including fruit rot fungi. Drosophila suzukii carries an inconsistent exterior fungal community with higher richness, frequency of detection, and propagule density than their interior community. This community includes fruit rot causal agents which primarily are found on their exteriors. Cladosporium occurs most frequently and was detected on the exterior of 35 out of 71 adults sampled across two sites and three years. They may also be able to vector fungi. In a worst-case scenario Petri dish laboratory vectoring assay, adult flies could transfer Botrytis cinerea and Cladosporium cladosporioides 0, 24, 48, and 72 hours after exposure to densely sporulating cultures. D. suzukii has the potential to impact fruit rot epidemiology.