DROSOPHILA SUZUKII (SPOTTED-WING DROSOPHILA) IS AN INVASIVE AGRICULTURAL PEST THAT INFESTS AND RUINS CROPS WORLDWIDE. EFFECTIVELY MANAGING THE SPECIES REQUIRES BOTH KNOWING HOW FLIES DISPERSE AT A LANDSCAPE SCALE AND UNDERSTANDING THE FACTORS THAT MODULATE THIS DISPERSAL. RECENT LABORATORY STUDIES SUGGEST FRUIT FLIES HAVE AN UNDERAPPRECIATED CAPACITY FOR EXTENDED STRAIGHT-LINE NAVIGATION. HOW THESE FINDINGS APPLY IN FIELD CONDITIONS, AND TO D. SUZUKII, IS UNKNOWN. OUR PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL TEST D. SUZUKII DISPERSAL CAPACITY DIRECTLY, USING AN AUTOMATED, TECHNICALLY SOPHISTICATED APPROACH THAT CIRCUMVENTS LIMITATIONS OF STANDARD TRAPS (OBJECTIVE 1). FURTHERMORE, WE WILL TEST HOW ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS - INCLUDING TIME OF DAY, TEMPERATURE, AND SEASON - INFLUENCE DISPERSAL (OBJECTIVE 2). FINALLY, WE WILL TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT PLANT AND FRUIT VOLATILES ATTRACT FLYING D. SUZUKII, USING QUANTITATIVE LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS AND GENETIC MANIPULATIONS (OBJECTIVE 3). THESE MUTUALLY INFORMATIVE OBJECTIVES ALIGN WITH GOALS OF THE AFRI PESTS AND BENEFICIAL SPECIES PROGRAM; WE WILL EXAMINE A PEST'SBEHAVIORAL ATTRIBUTES, INVESTIGATE FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO ITS INVASIVENESS AND ABUNDANCE, AND REVEAL ITS MOVEMENT DYNAMICS. OUR FINDINGS WILL ADDRESS CRUCIAL,UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BEHAVIOR AND PHYSIOLOGY OF A POTENT AGRICULTURAL PEST, RESPONSIBLE FOR ~750 MILLION DOLLARS OF YEARLY DAMAGE. OUR WORK WILL ENABLE MORE PRECISE APPLICATION OF PESTICIDES AND BIOCONTROLS, MORE EFFECTIVE SYNTHETIC ATTRACTANTS, AS WELL AS AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE POTENTIAL SPREAD OF TRANSGENIC POPULATIONS. MORE BROADLY, OUR FINDINGS WILL PROVIDE A GENERALIZABLE FRAMEWORK TO STUDY ANIMAL MOVEMENT AND ITS AGRICULTURAL CONSEQUENCES, WITH RELEVANCE TO BENEFICIAL SPECIES, PESTS, AND DISEASE VECTORS.