Urban mango and jackfruit favor the proliferation of invasive fruit flies

Between January 2023 and March 2024, we collected fallen and overripe fruits from mango (Mangifera indica) and jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) trees in various urban locations throughout the Federal District (Table S1; Figure 1), including public green spaces and residential backyards. Fruits were transported to the laboratory, weighed, and placed in containers covered with fine mesh lids and containing vermiculite at 25°C (12/12 h photoperiod). Adult flies emerging over 21 days were collected and preserved in 70% ethanol (Ribeiro et al., 2023; Viana et al., 2024). To characterize community structure, adults were identified to species level whenever possible, using external morphology and taxonomic key (Yuzuki & Tidon, 2020). Identified species were assigned a biogeographic origin (Neotropical, Oriental, Afrotropical) using published records. Neotropical species were then classified as native, while introduced species sustaining self-propagating populations were classified as invasive non-native, following the nomenclature proposed by Soto et al., (2024). To estimate infestation pressure, we calculated drosophilid density as the number of individuals per gram of fruit (ind/g) for both mango and jackfruit. To estimate the contribution of each drosophilid species to the community, we calculated its relative abundance for each fruit species based on Viana et al., (2024): RAi = (TAi/TAd) × 100 where RAi represents the relative abundance of drosophilid species i, TAi is the total number of individuals of that species, and TAd is the total number of drosophilids (all species combined).