Differences in Longevity of Chrysomya rufifacies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) (Macquart) and Cochliomyia macellaria (Diptera: Calliphoridae) (Fabricus) Adults

Authors

  • John Colby Shodrock Texas A&M University
  • Adrienne Brundage Texas A&M University

Abstract

There are certain morphological features and individual characteristics that are special to varying species that affect their lifecycle through every phase.  Certainly, not every species will live for the same amount of time from emergence to death.  In our case, there are two species of interest for our experiment.  These two species are Chrysomya rufifacies (Hairy Maggot Blow Fly) and Cochliomyia macellaria (Secondary Screwworm).  Both fly species have a detrimental impact on the livestock industry.  They enjoy feeding on dead tissue after a sustained injury and are the cause of myiasis presence in several livestock species.  For this reason, and many more, they are a concern economically.  Through general observations, we have noticed that adult Chrysomya rufifacies appear to be much bigger than Cochliomyia macellaria adults are, and wondered if this meant there would be a distinction in longevity of adult life and if the variation in size is  indicative of adulthood longevity.  Wild maggots were obtained and raised on food-grade bovine liver.  The adults were given a sugar water mixture daily until death, in which the number of days lived by each adult was recorded.  The data was analyzed using a T-test in SPSS.  Analyzing the data this way allowed us to obtain and compare measurements of mean, standard deviation, standard error, and the P value.  Our results indicate that Cochliomyia macellaria (p=.0467) adults live much longer than Chrysomya rufifacies adults do, and that size is not indicative of longer life.  Further research is needed to evaluate varying results for these two species, as well as conduct new experiments with other forensically important insect species.

Author Biographies

John Colby Shodrock, Texas A&M University

Entomology Undergraduate

Adrienne Brundage, Texas A&M University

Entomology Professor

References

IBM Corp. 2013. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22.0. IBM Corp, Armonk, New York.

Brundage, A., Benbow, M.E., Tomberlin, J.K. 2014. Priority effects on the life-history traits of two carrion blow fly (Diptera, Calliphoridae) species. Ecological Entomology. 10.1111/een.12128.

Byrd, J.H. 2014. Featured Creaturs: Chrysomya rufifacies. http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/livestock/hairy_maggot_blow_fly.htm

Byrd, J.H. 2014. Featured Creatures: Cochliomyia macellaria. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/livestock/secondary_screwworm.htm

Byrd, J.H. 1995. The effects of temperature on flies of forensic importance. M.S. thesis. University of Florida. 197 p.

Byrd, J.H., Butler, J.F. 1996. Effects of temperature on Chrysomya rufifacies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) development. Journal of Medical Entomology 34: 353-358.

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Published

2021-01-27