Ecological Studies of the House Fly1

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Abstract
Field and laboratory experiments, with special reference to sampling, tagging, dispersion, and abundance, were conducted to determine whether the actual number of house flies, Musca domestica L., in a room was related to the number landing on a standard fly grill. These experiments were performed in several kitchens on the Island of Mayaguana. After grill counts were taken and the flies killed with a dichlorvos aerosal spray, flies were collected and counted. There was a high correlation between grill counts and total populations in kitchens. The sex ratio of the flies collected showed an unusually high proportion of males. Laboratory and restricted field tests resulted in the use of various colored chalks combined with fluorescent dyes to mark adult flies. Pupae were covered with a layer of the dust and the flies tagged themselves as they emerged and crawled up through the marker. This technique was used to study the dispersion of newly emerged flies from privies on the Island of Grand Turk. Dispersion paths appeared random. Releases of tagged laboratory-reared flies were used to estimate the population of adult house flies on Grand Turk Island; 2 releases of 140,000 and 146,000 were made and the population estimated from the ratio of captured marked to unmarked flies.

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