Wind-Guided Landing and Search Behavior in Fleshflies and Blowflies Exploiting a Resource Patch (Diptera: Sarcophagidae, Calliphoridae)

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Abstract
The methods used by sarcophagid and calliphorid flies to locate and utilize an ephemeral resource were studied in the field. Their arrival sequences and orientation to an odorous food source on a vertical arena were examined. The first flies arrived at a feeding site soon after a resource became available, and subsequent flies followed rapidly. Sarcophagids tended to arrive before calliphorids. Smaller muscids and chloropids were the last to leave the patch, which indicates a size-based sequence of resource use among flies. The time required by flies to walk to the resource after they had landed nearby decreased significantly as the number of flies increased. This suggests that visual orientation to a group of other flies, in addition to olfactory orientation, improved resource localization. Trials were made with and without wind blowing across the resource. In the wind, flies approached using anemotaxis, landed downwind of the food source, and then walked upwind toward the resource. While walking, anemotactic orientation was more direct and more rapid than was nonanemotactic orientation.

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