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International audience; An increasing number of invasive fruit fly pests are colonizing new grounds. With this study, we aimed to uncover the invasion pathways of the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis into the islands of the Indian Ocean. By using genome-wide SNP data and a multipronged approach consisting of PCA, ancestry analysis, phylogenetic inference, and kinship networks, we were able to resolve two independent invasion pathways. A western invasion pathway involved the stepping-stone migration of B. dorsalis from the east African coast into the Comoros, along Mayotte and into Madagascar with a decreasing genetic diversity. The Mascarene islands (Reunion and Mauritius), on the contrary, were colonized directly from Asia and formed a distinct cluster. The low nucleotide diversity suggests that only a few genotypes invaded the Mascarenes. The presence of many long runs of homozygosity (ROH) in the introduced populations is indicative of population bottlenecks, with evidence of a more severe bottleneck for populations along the western migration pathway than on the Mascarene islands. More strict phytosanitary regulations are recommended in order to prevent the further spread of B. dorsalis.

Invasions by exotic species in areas already occupied by related species may lead to extinction or niche partitioning. Bactrocera dorsalis has invaded the Comoros archipelago in 2005 where other tephritids were already present. The host ranges of fruit flies in the Comoros were studied by conducting a seven-year survey on the three islands of the archipelago with a substantial sampling effort comprising 91 plant species from 37 families. The results showed that 45 fruit species in 16 families were infested by tephritid species. Eight fruit fly species were detected in the sampled fruits, but 78% of the individuals were identified as B. dorsalis, confirming its dominance and polyphagous status. More than ten years after its invasion, B. dorsalis has replaced Ceratitis capitata as the dominant fruit fly species on several species such as mango and citrus. The coexistence between B. dorsalis and C. capitata seems possible due to the capacity of the latter to exploit different niches, i.e. higher altitudinal ranges and a few host fruit species (among which, chillies and coffee berries) constituting a refuge niche. Information about coexistence between B. dorsalis and other tephritids is useful for the management and better estimates of invasion risks and associated biosecurity measures.