Bionomics of the oriental latrine fly Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) : temporal fluctuation and reproductive potential

  • Background: Chrysomya megacephala is a blow fly species of medical and forensic importance worldwide. Understanding its bionomics is essential for both designing effective fly control programs and its use in forensic investigations. Methods: The daily flight activity, seasonal abundance related to abiotic factors (temperature, relative humidity and rainfall) and reproductive potential of this species was investigated. Adult flies were sampled twice a month for one year from July 2013 to June 2014 in three different ecotypes (forest area, longan orchard and palm plantation) of Chiang Mai Province, northern Thailand, using semi-automatic funnel traps. One-day tainted beef offal was used as bait. Results: A total of 88,273 flies were sampled, of which 82,800 flies (93.8%) were caught during the day (from 06:00 to 18:00 h); while 5473 flies (6.2%) were caught at night (from 18:00 to 06:00 h). Concurrently, the abundance of C. megacephala was higher in the forest area (n = 31,873; 36.1%) and palm plantation (n = 31,347; 35.5%), compared to the longan orchard (n = 25,053; 28.4%). The number of females was significantly higher than that of males, exhibiting a female to male sex ratio of 2.36:1. Seasonal fluctuation revealed the highest abundance of C. megacephala in summer, but low numbers in the rainy season and winter. Fly density was significantly positively correlated with temperature, but negatively correlated with relative humidity. No correlation between numbers of C. megacephala with rainfall was found. Activity occurred throughout the daytime with high numbers from 06:00 to 18:00 h in summer and 12:00 to 18:00 h in the rainy season and winter. As for the nocturnal flight activity, a small number of flies were collected in summer and the rainy season, while none were collected in the winter. Dissection of the females indicated that fecundity was highest during the rainy season, followed by winter and summer. Conclusions: Since the assessment of daily, seasonal activity and the reproductive potential of C. megacephala remains a crucial point to be elucidated, this extensive study offers insights into bionomics, which may be considered for integrated fly control strategies and forensic entomology issues.

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Author: Narin SontigunORCiD, Kabkaew L. SukontasonORCiD, Tunwadee Klong-klaewORCiD, Sangob Sanit, Chutharat SamerjaiORCiD, Pradya SomboonORCiD, Sa-nguansak ThanapornpoonpongORCiDGND, Jens AmendtORCiDGND, Kom SukontasonORCiD
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-471333
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-018-2986-2
ISSN:1756-3305
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30005704
Parent Title (English):Parasites and vectors
Publisher:BioMed Central
Place of publication:London
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2018
Date of first Publication:2018/07/13
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2018/08/23
Tag:Chrysomya megacephala; Daily flight activity; Reproductive potential; Seasonal fluctuation; Thailand
Volume:11.2018
Issue:1, Art. 415
Page Number:12
First Page:1
Last Page:12
Note:
Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
HeBIS-PPN:446472190
Institutes:Biowissenschaften / Institut für Ökologie, Evolution und Diversität
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 59 Tiere (Zoologie) / 590 Tiere (Zoologie)
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0