Dead Flies Research Articles

Two Poems

fathers and mothers. They had all crowded in one place, an unholy assemblage of ghosts auditioning to be an allegory of triumph of the human spirit, pretending to be together in eager anticipation of a shared miracle of love when we were actually praying for jobs, insurance, and pension plans. Wearing his formal religious vestment Lukas, along with a small choir, boarded one of the trawlers, which took them in deep water. I couldn’t hear my father, but I knew he was reading from the first chapter of Saint Mark’s gospel. I stood motionless on the shore as if posing for a portrait with the blankness of a scarecrow, in anticipation of his cue to release the white dove I cradled. Lukas raised the basil sprig in his hand, sprinkled the sea, and tossed the cross. The divers flung themselves in the air and plunged into the sea. They wrestled to troll the cross, churning the water, a formless colony of gulls submerging their heads to groom themselves and catch fish. Then the men vanished. Entirely. As if they ceased to exist as visible forms. Some thought at first that it must have been a sort of visual deception, and that for a brief moment they were completely incapable of noticing what was happening before their eyes. They stood silent, looking at my father as if floored by his abilities to make appear and disappear. But the longer we expected the divers to resurface, the surer we were that something was terribly wrong with the world around us, as if we were at once dreaming and waking quietly from a troubled sleep. The vessels started to sink. We weighed all the possible explanations as quickly as we could and screamed. It was a horrible noise, the sound of a sickening wind punctuated by the thin squeak from something that sounded like a clowder of maniacal cats, but it was more as if suddenly you could hear through walls from another world, the suffocating closing down of reason. Men and women jumped into the sea trying to locate the bodies of their loved ones, but the sinking trawlers stopped them. No one will tell our story. No one will bear the listening : what we found down there laying on the blue depth of the sea floor, instead of trawlers and men, were dozens of fishlike species never seen before. Our suffering will never be a story of loss—it won’t teach you anything. It will be the slow shake of the head: our kinship with the sand filling up with ants, like a local orchestra of unpeaceful mourners singing for the dead flies they are carrying. The history of grains wishing they could flow against the wind. Athens Two Poems by Eli Eliahu Crossroads All winter I didn’t write a poem, and I didn’t remember even one dream that I dreamt. I left a house and a wife, rented an apartment, and everything I needed I found discarded along one road or another: bed, table, shelves, refrigerator. It’s possible to say that this was a wonder, an act of angels, as I stood at a crossroads. It’s also possible not to think about it too much. I cannot know a thing about life’s questions, or to estimate what I found and how much I lost. But all that winter I didn’t write a poem, and I didn’t remember even one dream that I dreamt. Simple Thing There is no simple thing – from olive branches do not make clubs. There is no simple thing at all – from discarded stones do not build a wall. There is no clarity in ease. Where the house stood there is a little mound of dust, and from the dust we came, as they say. It is no simple thing to walk in another’s shoes. But sometimes it seems that you truly remember: the sheep, the mosque, the well. Translations from the Hebrew By Kevin Haworth Eli Eliahu (b. 1969) is an Israeli poet based out of Ramat Gan. He has published two highly praised books in Hebrew, I, and Not an Angel (2008) and City...

Two Poems

fathers and mothers. They had all crowded in one place, an unholy assemblage of ghosts auditioning to be an allegory of triumph of the human spirit, pretending to be together in eager anticipation of a shared miracle of love when we were actually praying for jobs, insurance, and pension plans. Wearing his formal religious vestment Lukas, along with a small choir, boarded one of the trawlers, which took them in deep water. I couldn’t hear my father, but I knew he was reading from the first chapter of Saint Mark’s gospel. I stood motionless on the shore as if posing for a portrait with the blankness of a scarecrow, in anticipation of his cue to release the white dove I cradled. Lukas raised the basil sprig in his hand, sprinkled the sea, and tossed the cross. The divers flung themselves in the air and plunged into the sea. They wrestled to troll the cross, churning the water, a formless colony of gulls submerging their heads to groom themselves and catch fish. Then the men vanished. Entirely. As if they ceased to exist as visible forms. Some thought at first that it must have been a sort of visual deception, and that for a brief moment they were completely incapable of noticing what was happening before their eyes. They stood silent, looking at my father as if floored by his abilities to make appear and disappear. But the longer we expected the divers to resurface, the surer we were that something was terribly wrong with the world around us, as if we were at once dreaming and waking quietly from a troubled sleep. The vessels started to sink. We weighed all the possible explanations as quickly as we could and screamed. It was a horrible noise, the sound of a sickening wind punctuated by the thin squeak from something that sounded like a clowder of maniacal cats, but it was more as if suddenly you could hear through walls from another world, the suffocating closing down of reason. Men and women jumped into the sea trying to locate the bodies of their loved ones, but the sinking trawlers stopped them. No one will tell our story. No one will bear the listening : what we found down there laying on the blue depth of the sea floor, instead of trawlers and men, were dozens of fishlike species never seen before. Our suffering will never be a story of loss—it won’t teach you anything. It will be the slow shake of the head: our kinship with the sand filling up with ants, like a local orchestra of unpeaceful mourners singing for the dead flies they are carrying. The history of grains wishing they could flow against the wind. Athens Two Poems by Eli Eliahu Crossroads All winter I didn’t write a poem, and I didn’t remember even one dream that I dreamt. I left a house and a wife, rented an apartment, and everything I needed I found discarded along one road or another: bed, table, shelves, refrigerator. It’s possible to say that this was a wonder, an act of angels, as I stood at a crossroads. It’s also possible not to think about it too much. I cannot know a thing about life’s questions, or to estimate what I found and how much I lost. But all that winter I didn’t write a poem, and I didn’t remember even one dream that I dreamt. Simple Thing There is no simple thing – from olive branches do not make clubs. There is no simple thing at all – from discarded stones do not build a wall. There is no clarity in ease. Where the house stood there is a little mound of dust, and from the dust we came, as they say. It is no simple thing to walk in another’s shoes. But sometimes it seems that you truly remember: the sheep, the mosque, the well. Translations from the Hebrew By Kevin Haworth Eli Eliahu (b. 1969) is an Israeli poet based out of Ramat Gan. He has published two highly praised books in Hebrew, I, and Not an Angel (2008) and City...

To Catch a Fly: Landing and Capture of Ceratitis capitata in a Jackson Trap with and without an Insecticide.

Attractant-based traps are a cornerstone of detection, delimitation and eradication programs for pests such as tephritid fruit flies. The ideal trap and lure combination has high attraction (it brings insects to the trap from a distance) and high capture efficiency (it has a high probability of capturing the insect once it arrives at the trap). We examined the effect of an insecticide (DDVP) in combination with a pheromone lure (trimedlure) on capture of Ceratitis capitata using 1) digital images of surfaces of a Jackson trap analyzed via computer vision, and 2) counts of the number of flies caught in the trap and in the area under the trap. Our results indicate no significant difference in trap capture without or with insecticide (means ± SD = 324 ±135 and 356 ±108, respectively). However, significantly more dead flies were found around the trap with insecticide (92 ±53 with insecticide compared with 35 ±22 without), suggesting a possible decrease in trap efficiency due to mortality before insects enter the trap. Indeed, the average number of flies detected on all surfaces of the traps with insecticide was lower than that for lure-only (4.15±0.39 vs 8.30±1.18), and both were higher than control (no lure: 0.76 ±0.08). We found that the majority of fly sightings, 71% of the total, occurred on the inside panels of the lure-only traps, suggesting that increased efficiency of the Jackson trap may be obtained by adding a contact insecticide to those surfaces.

Within-species reproductive costs affect the asymmetry of satyrization in Drosophila.

Understanding how species interactions influence their distribution and evolution is a fundamental question in evolutionary biology. Theory suggests that asymmetric reproductive interference, in which one species induces higher reproductive costs on another species, may be more important in delimiting species boundaries than interspecific competition over resources. However, the underlying mechanisms of such asymmetry remain unclear. Here, we test whether differences in within-species reproductive costs determine the between-species asymmetry of costs using three allopatric Drosophila species belonging to the melanogaster subgroup. Our results support this hypothesis, especially in a pair of insular species. Males of one species that induce costs to their conspecific females led to a 5-fold increase of heterospecific females mortality with dead flies bearing spectacular large melanized wounds on their genitalia. Males of the other species were harmful neither to their conspecific nor heterospecific females. Comparative studies of within-species reproductive costs may therefore be a valuable tool for predicting between-species interactions and community structures.

Effects of essential oils of lemon grass, Cymbopogon citratus and the Mexican marigold, Tagetes minuta on mortality and oviposition in adult sandflies, Phlebotomus duboscqi

The efficacy of the essential oils of Cymbopogon citratus and Tagetes minuta in causing mortality in adults of the sandfly Phlebotomus duboscqi was tested in a laboratory bioassay. The effect of the oils on oviposition by female sand flies was also evaluated. Each essential oil (EO) extract was tested at graded concentrations of 0.125; 0.250; 0.500; 0.750 and 1mg/ml in Tween 80 and a positive control of dimethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET). The oil and control preparations were applied onto the inner surface and bottom of a sterile pot and thirty adult sandflies P. duboscqi aspirated into the pot. The mortality of insects was recorded as the number of dead flies after 24, 48 and 72 h. In addition, the numbers of eggs oviposited by female flies that were subjected to the different treatments were recorded. The results showed that both the essential oils of T. minuta and C. citratus were highly potent against adult sand flies, P. duboscqi with mortality levels of 100.00 and 82.22 % on female sandflies and 100.00 and 88.89 % on male sandflies, respectively after 72h. Comparing the mortality levels caused by the two oils, which of C. citratus was significantly higher ( P < 0. 05) than the oil of T. minuta on male and female sandflies. However, at the shorter periods there was no statistical difference in mortality levels of males and females subjected to each of the two oils. With regard to oviposition, female sandflies treated with the oil of C. citratus oil laid significantly lower number of eggs than those laid by sand flies treated with T. minuta oil. Furthermore, gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis done on samples of the two oils showed a wide range of candidate compounds, including terpenes. In conclusion, the two essential oils are promising natural insecticides due to their safety advantage over chemical insecticides. It remains to carry out further studies in the field using human subjects before their adoption for use against Phlebotomine sandflies. In addition bioassays with individual and combinations of the constituent compounds of the essential oils may determine the candidate biologically active compounds.

Can differential nutrient extraction explain property variations in a predatory trap?

Predators exhibit flexible foraging to facilitate taking prey that offer important nutrients. Because trap-building predators have limited control over the prey they encounter, differential nutrient extraction and trap architectural flexibility may be used as a means of prey selection. Here, we tested whether differential nutrient extraction induces flexibility in architecture and stickiness of a spider's web by feeding Nephila pilipes live crickets (CC), live flies (FF), dead crickets with the web stimulated by flies (CD) or dead flies with the web stimulated by crickets (FD). Spiders in the CD group consumed less protein per mass of lipid or carbohydrate, and spiders in the FF group consumed less carbohydrates per mass of protein. Spiders from the CD group built stickier webs that used less silk, whereas spiders in the FF group built webs with more radii, greater catching areas and more silk, compared with other treatments. Our results suggest that differential nutrient extraction is a likely explanation for prey-induced spider web architecture and stickiness variations.

Repellent and insecticidal efficacy of a new combination of fipronil and permethrin against stable flies (Stomoxys calcitrans).

BackgroundA laboratory study was conducted to assess the repellent and insecticidal efficacy of a new combination of fipronil and permethrin (Frontline Tri- Act®/Frontect® Merial) against Stomoxys calcitrans (stable flies).MethodsSixteen dogs were allocated to two treatment groups. Eight dogs were treated with a new topical spot-on formulation containing 6.76% w/v fipronil + 50.48% w/v permethrin on Day 0 and eight dogs served as untreated controls. Each dog was exposed to approximately 100 stable flies on Days 1, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 35. After a one-hour exposure period, live flies were carefully aspirated into a vial, anesthetized with CO2 and crushed to determine feeding status (fed or unfed). Any dead flies remaining on the dog or in the cage were crushed to determine feeding status and counted as fed or unfed. Repellency was defined as the percent reduction in the number of fed flies in the treated group as compared to the untreated control group, and insecticidal efficacy was defined as the reduction in the number of live flies at the end of each exposure period in the treated group as compared to the control group.ResultsPercent repellency was ≥96.6% through Day 28, and 88.7% on Day 35. Percent insecticidal efficacy was ≥ 98.3% through Day 35.ConclusionsA single topical administration of a new combination of fipronil and permethrin provides protection (repellency and insecticidal efficacy) from S. calcitrans on dogs for at least 5 weeks.

Do organophosphate-based traps reduce control efficiency of resistant tephritid flies?

Organophosphate (OP) insecticides have been an effective control of several tephritid pests. Recently, OP resistance has been observed in various fly species from different localities. However, in cases where resistance to an OP is exhibited in the field, evaluations of the efficiency of trapping with lures mixed with the same OP toxicants have not been carried out. To address this, the trapping and killing efficiency of lures with OP toxicants was assessed for flies from lines of Bactrocera dorsalis exhibiting resistance and susceptibility to OP insecticides. Specifically, bioassays were conducted with males from susceptible, resistant, and revertant lines (derived by relaxation of selection in the resistant line). The trapping and killing efficiencies of traps containing concentrations of 5 or 2.5 % naled were assayed at different exposure times. For the susceptible line, the number of dead flies found inside and outside of the trap was significantly lower than that of the other two tested lines. The number of dead flies found outside was significantly lower for the 2.5 % naled concentration compared to that of the 5 % concentration. Additionally, an analysis of genotypes showed that in trapped males, the frequencies of alleles of the acetylcholinesterase gene associated with resistance were lower compared to males of the field population collected from the same localities. In conclusion, for cases where fly lines exhibit insecticide resistance, the use of toxicant lures laced with the same insecticides may severely impact trapping effectiveness and may result in further increases of the frequency of resistant genotypes in the population.

Insecticidal activity of microencapsulated Schinus molle essential oil

Microencapsulation of the Schinus molle Rev L. (Anacardiaceae) leaves essential oil (EO) has been employed to control the release of active ingredients, protecting them from the external environment, with the concurrent improvement of its insecticidal potential on Haematobia irritans. Four microcapsule formulations (EEO1 to EEO4) of S. molle EO were prepared by spray-drying, using a mini spray dryer and gum Arabic/maltodextrin (AG/MDX) as the carrier in different proportions, at a ratio of 4:1 (MDX/AG:EO). Encapsulation efficiency (EE: 96–100%), powder morphology and particle size distribution were analyzed as responses. An interesting correlation was found between EO free and microcapsules (EEO) in the preliminary and comparative studies of stability (at 45°C) and in the insecticide activity on H. irritans. In fact, a very slow liberation profile of the microencapsulated EO (EEO4) was observed over a period of 366h (71% of EO retention), as well as a slower time-dependent insecticide effect (32 and 73% of dead flies at 2 and 4h of exposure time) compared to the free EO (96% of dead flies at 2h).

Biocontrol of Haematobia irritans Horn Flies with Entomopathogenic Fungi ( Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae )

The bio-control of adult Haematobia irritans flies, its eggs and pupae with two fungal agents viz, Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae was studied. High concentration of (1×10 8 conidia /ml) B. bassiana and M. anisopliae showed mortality of 62.5% and 93.7% respectively against eggs of Haematobia irritans . The pupae of H. irritans treated with high concentration B. bassiana and M. anisopliae resulted in 50% and 52% mortality respectively. Adult H. irritans when treated with high concentration of B. bassiana and M. anisopliae showed mortality of 90% and 80% respectively. These two fungal agents led to the reduced emergence of adults form treated eggs and pupae. The growth of mycelia was observed on the body dead adult flies after 4 days.

Anti-feeding efficacy of Activyl® Tick Plus topical treatment of dogs against Phlebotomus perniciosus

BackgroundTopical permethrin treatment is known to prevent feeding of sandflies on dogs. This study investigated the anti-feeding efficacy and the immediate insecticidal efficacy (knock-down effect) of topical treatment of dogs with a new commercially available combination of indoxacarb and permethrin (Activyl® Tick Plus), compared with a negative control.MethodsSedated dogs were individually exposed to unfed female sandflies in a darkened chamber for one hour 2, 7, 14, 21 and 29 days after treatment. Mean fly feeding and survival rates in the two groups after one hour of exposure were used to calculate the anti-feeding efficacy and the knock-down effect, respectively.ResultsOn Days 2, 7, 14, 21 and 29 post treatment, the anti-feeding efficacy was 99, 98, 96, 88 and 84% based on geometric means. The mean number of fed sandflies in the treated group was significantly lower than in the control group mean at every evaluation time point. The knock-down effect, measured at one hour after exposure of the flies to treated dogs, was 32, 27, 9, 0 and 4% based on geometric means, at the same time points. The number of dead flies was significantly higher in the treated group on Days 2 and 7 post-treatment. No adverse effects of treatment were observed at any time during the study.ConclusionsActivyl® Tick Plus treatment of dogs provided a high anti-feeding efficacy against Phlebotomus perniciosus from 2 to 21 days post treatment, with continuing significant anti-feeding to 29 days post-treatment, and was well tolerated. Some knock-down effect following one hour of exposure of flies to treated dogs was observed in the first week after treatment.

Comparative Growth and Development of Spiders Reared on Live and Dead Prey

Scavenging (feeding on dead prey) has been demonstrated across a number of spider families, yet the implications of feeding on dead prey for the growth and development of individuals and population is unknown. In this study we compare the growth, development, and predatory activity of two species of spiders that were fed on live and dead prey. Pardosa astrigera (Lycosidae) and Hylyphantes graminicola (Lyniphiidae) were fed live or dead fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster. The survival of P. astrigera and H. graminicola was not affected by prey type. The duration of late instars of P. astrigera fed dead prey were longer and mature spiders had less protein content than those fed live prey, whereas there were no differences in the rate of H. graminicola development, but the mass of mature spiders fed dead prey was greater than those fed live prey. Predation rates by P. astrigera did not differ between the two prey types, but H. graminicola had a higher rate of predation on dead than alive prey, presumably because the dead flies were easier to catch and handle. Overall, the growth, development and reproduction of H. graminicola reared with dead flies was better than those reared on live flies, yet for the larger P. astrigera, dead prey may suit smaller instars but mature spiders may be best maintained with live prey. We have clearly demonstrated that dead prey may be suitable for rearing spiders, although the success of the spiders fed such prey appears size- and species specific.

Oviposition behaviour of Phlebotomus argentipes - A laboratory-based study

The breeding habitat of sandflies is a little studied and poorly understood phenomenon. More importantly, oviposition behaviour is a largely neglected aspect of sandfly biology and this knowledge gap further undermines our understanding of the biology of sandflies. Pheromones released by the eggs play an important role in identifying good sites for oviposition by female insects. Several recent studies have examined the oviposition pheromone. The present study provides a preliminary report on the oviposition behaviour of Phlebotomus argentipes, the only vector of kala-azar (or visceral leishmaniasis) on the Indian sub-continent. Sandflies prefer to oviposit their eggs on surfaces that contain organic substances, especially substances with an odour of decaying animal products and the remains of conspecific eggs. The results presented here suggest that the odour released by the organic substances of old sandfly colony remains that contain dead flies, old unhatched eggs, larval food containing vertebrate faeces, frass and other organic matter serves as an attractant for the ovipositing females of P. argentipes and hence greatly increases the number of oviposited eggs compared to eggs deposited in controlled oviposition pots. This result will be helpful in maintaining an efficient colony of P. argentipes and may be a promising tool for monitoring and controlling the target insect as part of a synergistic approach.

Jasmonates trigger prey-induced formation of 'outer stomach' in carnivorous sundew plants.

It has been widely accepted that the growth-related phytohormone auxin is the endogenous signal that initiates bending movements of plant organs. In 1875, Charles Darwin described how the bending movement of leaves in carnivorous sundew species formed an 'outer stomach' that allowed the plants to enclose and digest captured insect prey. About 100 years later, auxin was suggested to be the factor responsible for this movement. We report that prey capture induces both leaf bending and the accumulation of defence-related jasmonate phytohormones. In Drosera capensis fed with fruitflies, within 3 h after prey capture and simultaneous with leaf movement, we detected an increase in jasmonic acid and its isoleucine conjugate. This accumulation was spatially restricted to the bending segment of the leaves. The application of jasmonates alone was sufficient to trigger leaf bending. Only living fruitflies or the body fluids of crushed fruitflies induced leaf curvature; neither dead flies nor mechanical treatment had any effect. Our findings strongly suggest that the formation of the 'outer stomach' in Drosera is a chemonastic movement that is triggered by accumulation of endogenous jasmonates. These results suggest that in carnivorous sundew plants the jasmonate cascade might have been adapted to facilitate carnivory rather than to defend against herbivores.

Developmental selection against developmental instability: a direct demonstration

Developmental selection, the non-random elimination of offspring during development, is hypothesized to alter the opportunity for selection on a given trait at later stages of the life cycle. Here, we provide a direct demonstration of developmental selection against developmental instability, assessed as the incidence of minor, discrete phenotypic abnormalities in the male sex comb, a condition-dependent secondary sexual trait in Drosophila bipectinata. We exposed developing flies from two geographically separate populations to increasing levels of temperature stress, and recovered the males that died during development by teasing them out of their pupal cases. These dead males, the so-called 'invisible fraction' of the population, were more developmentally unstable than their surviving counterparts, and dramatically so under conditions of relatively high temperature stress. We illustrate that had these dead juvenile flies actually survived and entered the pool of sexually mature adult individuals, their mating success would have been significantly reduced, thus intensifying sexual selection in the adult cohort for reducing developmental instability. The data suggest that without accounting for developmental selection, a study focusing exclusively on the adult cohort may unwittingly underestimate the net force of selection operating on a given phenotypic trait.

Brief Early-Life Non-Specific Incorporation of Deuterium Extends Mean Life Span inDrosophila melanogasterWithout Affecting Fecundity

We have investigated the effects of brief, non-specific deuteration of Drosophila melanogaster by including varying percentages of ²H (D) in the H₂O used in the food mix consumed during initial development. Up to 22.5% deuterium oxide (D₂O) in H₂O was administered, with the result that a low percentage of D₂O in the water increased mean life span, whereas the highest percentage used (22.5%) reduced life span. After the one-time treatment period, adult flies were maintained ad libitum with food of normal isotopic distribution. At low deuterium levels, where life span extension was observed, there was no observed change in fecundity. Dead flies were assayed for deuterium incorporation by complete hydrolysis in hot 12 N HCl solution followed by subsequent high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS). Isoleucine and leucine residues showed a small, linear dose-dependent incorporation of deuterium at non-exchangeable sites. Although high levels of D₂O itself are toxic for other reasons, higher levels of deuterium incorporation, which can be achieved without toxicity by strategies that avoid direct use of D₂O, are clearly worth exploring.

Export of Commercial Hass Avocados From Argentina Poses Negligible Risk of &lt;I&gt;Ceratitis capitata&lt;/I&gt; (Diptera: Tephritidae) Infestation

Argentina has to meet quarantine restrictions because of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae), to export 'Hass' avocados, Persea americana Miller, to certain countries. Hass avocado at the hard, mature green stage is potentially a conditional nonhost for C. capitata and could open export markets without the need for a quarantine treatment. Trapping data from 1998 to 2006 showed that C. capitata was present in avocado orchards, particularly early in the harvest season. The host status of hard, mature green Hass avocado to C. capitata was evaluated using laboratory and field cage tests under no-choice conditions and by assessing natural levels of infestation in commercially harvested fruit from the main avocado production area. In total, 2,250 hard, mature green avocado fruit were exposed to 11,250 gravid females for 24 or 48 h after harvest in laboratory or field cages, and no infestations were found. During 11 seasons, 5,949 fruit in total were sampled from the trees and 992 fruit were collected from the ground, and in none of them were any live or dead fruit fly larvae found. Inspection of >198,000 commercial fruit at the packinghouse from 1998 to 2011 showed no symptoms of fruit fly infestation. These data exceed the published standards for determination of nonhost status, as well as the Probit 9 standard for development of quarantine treatments. Hass avocado harvested at the hard, mature green stage was not infested by C. capitata and seems to pose a negligible quarantine risk. As a consequence, no postharvest treatment or other quarantine actions should be required by importing countries.

A laboratory study on the effect of Paraiotonchium autumnale parasitism on the longevity of Musca autumnalis

Paraiotonchium autumnale (Nickle) (Tylenchida: Iotonchiidae) causes parasitic sterilization in female Musca autumnalis DeGeer (Diptera: Muscidae). In addition to sterilization, P. autumnale causes physiological and behavioural changes within its host. However, there have been no records of reduced host lifespan in this system. Studies were conducted in 2009 and 2010 with wild M. autumnalis collected as larvae from cow dung pats from Browns Valley, California, USA. Field-collected larvae were reared to adulthood and flies of the same eclosion dates were caged together, regardless of whether or not they were parasitized. Dead flies were collected daily, and parasitism status was confirmed by dissection. Due to the very different effects of P. autumnale-parasitism on male versus female face flies, flies were analysed separately by sex. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed a non-significant difference in longevity between non-parasitized and parasitized flies for female and male flies in 2009. In 2010, however, significant differences (P < 0·05) were found between parasitized and non-parasitized female and male flies. In 2010, the median time to death for non-parasitized female flies was 20 days and 15 days for parasitized females. The 2010 median survival time for non-parasitized male flies was 33 days and 15 days for parasitized males. This is a parasite-mediated cost to the host that has not been recorded previously. Based on our results and results from another published study we suggest that the potential for sterilizing parasites to alter host longevity is condition dependent.

Controlling and sampling adult sand flies with a fumigant containing permethrin and deltamethrin

The efficacy of a new smoke-generating formulation (fumigant, MidMos Solutions Ltd., GB), containing the active ingredients permethrin and deltamethrin, was evaluated against adult sand flies in an apartment (280 m(3)), a semi-open large animal shelter (enclosing an area of 300 m(2)), a closed Bedouin animal tent (104 m(3)), and a garden (141 m(2)) enclosed by a stone wall. In each location, four cages with approx. 100 Phlebotomus papatasi were exposed to the fumigant 0.5 m and 2.0 m above ground for 15 and 60 min. Controls were kept in untreated similar rooms and there were two repetitions. In the apartment and the animal tent, a single cartridge caused 100% mortality within 15 min. In the large animal shelter, one fumigant caused mortality of 86% in the lower cages and 75% in the upper cages after 15 min. After 60 min, mortality was 94 and 87%, respectively. With two fumigants, mortality was 98.5 and 91% after 15 min and after 60 min all sand flies were dead. In the garden, one fumigant caused mortality of 93% in the lower cages and 85.5% in the upper cages after 15 min. After 60 min the mortality was 98 and 92%, respectively. With two fumigants, all flies were dead within 15 min.

Biological studies on adult water snipe fly, Atherix ibis (Fabricius, 1798) (Diptera: Athericidae): old myths and new facts

The water snipe fly, Atherix ibis, is known for its eggbearing females aggregating in clusters. They are most frequently found as flat crusts under the outer parts of bridge ceilings above the water. There is no persistent pattern in the cluster distribution either in relation to the current direction or to the sun. Females aggregate in early summer in short periods of warm and calm weather only. Females are attracted to an aggregation site, probably by pheromones. The flies fasten to the surface and to each other by minute Velcro-like structures on their feet. The eggs are shed inside the cluster. After 9–12 days the eggs hatch, and the larvae leave clusters and drop into the water. There is no increased temperature inside the cluster. There are no signs of larval feeding on either dead flies or siblings in the cluster. The majority of larvae leave the cluster during night time, also when the normal day–night rhythm is eliminated by experimental black-out.