ON THE BEHAVIOR AND ECOLOGY OF THE FACE FLY, MUSCA AUTUMNALIS (DIPTERA: MUSCIDAE)

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The face fly, Musca autumnalis De Geer, is continuously present in the field at Guelph, Ont., from April to late October, with peak populations occurring near 1 August. The flies enter buildings only to hibernate, the females doing so in an unfertilized, nulliparous condition. The flies feed only during the daylight hours and primarily on cattle and horses. Infestations on these hosts arc subject to wide daily and hourly variation dependent on temperature, light, precipitation, wind, and behavior of the host.Mating normally occurs as a result of males waiting at particular stations in the pasture to apprehend females flying past. Experiments and observations on a laboratory colony of face flies has disclosed other facets of their sexual behavior.Provided with a suitable proteinaceous diet the face fly can produce an average of 26 eggs per ovarial cycle and a probable maximum of near 230 eggs in a lifetime. Oviposition and (or) successful development will apparently occur only in bovine feces having a certain consistency. Face flies are among the first of the coprophagous insects to reach a dropping; arriving normally within 5 to 10 minutes of its deposition. The dropping remains suitable for oviposition for up to about 3 hours, depending on the rate of drying of its surface.Under normal summer temperature conditions eggs hatched within about 24 hours. The young larvae were initially restricted to the surface layers of the dropping by their respiratory requirements but by the end of the normal 5 to 7 day development period the larvae occupied the entire dropping. Mature third stage larvae pupated in the soil surrounding the dropping.Two hymenopterous pupal parasites Aphaereta pallipes (Say) and Xylaphora sp. accounted for approximately 10% mortality. Face fly adults were preyed upon by the staphylinid beetle Ontholestes cingulatus Gravelle, and the common dung fly, Scatophaga stercoraria (L.).

This publication has 15 references indexed in Scilit: