ARS | Publication request: Dispersal of stable flies (Diptera: Muscidae) from larval development sites in a Nebraska landscape

Submitted to: Environmental Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: April 22, 2010
Publication Date: August 1, 2010
Repository URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10113/43935
Citation: Taylor, D.B., Moon, R.D., Campbell, J.B., Berkebile, D.R., Scholl, P.J., Broce, A.B., Hogsette, Jr, J.A. 2010. Dispersal of stable flies (Diptera: Muscidae) from larval development sites in a Nebraska landscape. Environmental Entomology. 39(4):1101-1110.

Interpretive Summary: Seven mark-recapture studies of stable flies were conducted in eastern Nebraska. Larval developmental sites were dusted with fluorescent dust such that emerging flies would contact the dust and become marked. Stable flies were recaptured an average of 0.7 km from their larval developmental sites. Male and female flies dispersed similar distances. Flies with remnants of blood in their guts indicating that they had recently taken a blood meal had dispersed further than those without remnants of blood. Female flies that had initiated the development of eggs had dispersed further than those that had not initiated the development of eggs. Dispersal distances did not increase with time since the sites were marked indicating that most of the dispersal took place during the first 24 to 48 hours after emergence.

Technical Abstract: Seven mark recapture studies of stable flies wer conducted in a mixed agricultural environment in northeastern Nebraska. Larval developmental sites were marked by dusting the surface with fluorescent pigments and stable flies were recaptured with grids of Alsynite sticky traps. Recaptured flies were dissected to determine if they had recently blood fed or had initiated the deposition of yolk in the ovarioles. A total of 3,889 stable flies were recaptured during the 3-year study. Half of the marked stable flies dispersed less than 1.55 km and 95% less than 5.12 km. Male and female stable flies dispersed similarly, and no differences in blood feeding frequencies were observed between males and females. The percentage of the flies that had recently blood fed, and of the females that had initiated yolk deposition, increased with distance from their origin. The pattern of dispersal fit the Dispersal with Loss Model of Turchin and Thoeny. The measure of spatial scale of dispersal, B, was 1.31.