Influence of Attractants on Behavior of Screwworms (Diptera, Calliphoridae) in A Tropical Wet Forest in Costa-Rica

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Economic Entomology

Volume

84

Publication Date

1991

First Page

1468

Last Page

1475

Abstract

In a mark-release-recapture study, sheep wounds and rotted liver were used as attractants to study movements of the screwworm fly, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel), in a Costa Rican tropical wet forest in the wet season. When sites were monitored for < 1 h, liver attracted between 3 and 12.2 times more flies of both sexes than did wounds, but proportionately fewer gravid and parous females. Only 24.6% of females marked at liver sites were recaptured; seldom (3.1%) did they visit sheep wounds. Females originally marked at sheep wounds remained at the study site longer, visited both sheep and liver sites, and > 50% were recaptured. Some females were observed for 16 d and one laid four clutches of eggs. Only 8% of the marked males were recaptured and none was recaptured < 2 d later. Only a small proportion of the adult screwworms at a locality visited wounds on sentinel sheep; the majority of the adults were transient

Subject Area

Pathogens and Parasites

Taxonomic Grouping

Wasps and other insects

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