Factors Influencing Mating and Oviposition of Black Soldier Flies (Diptera: Stratiomyidae) in a Colony

2002 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffery K. Tomberlin ◽  
D. Craig Sheppard

Most information on the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens (L.), is limited to its use as a biological control and waste management agent. Little is known about its mating and oviposition activities. Latency from emergence to mating and oviposition for colony-reared black soldier flies placed in a 1.5 × 1.5 × 3 m nylon cage located in a greenhouse was determined. Sixty-nine percent of mating occurred 2 d after eclosion and 70% of oviposition 4 d after eclosion. Time of day and light intensity significantly correlated with mating (r2 = 0.49; P < 0.0001), while time of day, temperature, and humidity significantly correlated with oviposition (r2 = 0.58; P < 0.0001). Latency after emergence significantly correlated with mating (r2 = 0.99; P < 0.0001) and oviposition (r2 = 0.99; P < 0.0001). A second experiment was conducted to examine oviposition preference of the black soldier fly. Adults were allowed to oviposit in Gainesville house fly, Musca domestica L., larval media with and without 5-d-old black soldier fly larvae. Based on sign non-parametric Mests, numbers of egg clutches deposited in each treatment were not significantly different.

Insects ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Levi K. Zahn ◽  
Alec C. Gerry

House flies (Musca domestica L.) are common synanthropic pests associated with confined animal operations, including dairy farms. House flies can cause substantial nuisance and may transmit human and animal pathogens. Surprisingly little is known about the daily flight activity of house flies. This study examined diurnal house fly flight activity on two southern California dairies using clear sticky traps to capture flies over hourly intervals. Flight activity for both males and females combined started near dawn and generally increased to a single broad activity peak during mid to late morning. Male flight activity peaked earlier than female flight activity and this separation in peak activity widened as mean daytime temperature increased. Flight activity for both sexes increased rapidly during early morning in response to the combined effects of increasing light intensity and temperature, with decreasing flight activity late in the day as temperature decreased. During midday, flight activity was slightly negatively associated with light intensity and temperature. Collection period (time of day) was a useful predictor of house fly activity on southern California dairies and the diurnal pattern of flight activity should be considered when developing house fly monitoring and control programs.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
J.A. Cammack ◽  
C.D. Miranda ◽  
H.R. Jordan ◽  
J.K. Tomberlin

An unavoidable by-product of any animal production system, be it vertebrate- or invertebrate-based, is the manure generated by the animals themselves. In this review, we focus on the role that insects, particularly the black soldier fly Hermetia illucens (L.) (Diptera: Stratiomyidae), could play in managing the mass amount of manure produced through animal agriculture, and the subsequent commodities that could be generated by such a system. Although the focus of this review is on the black soldier fly, we postulate that other species, including the lesser mealworm Alphitobius diaperinus (Panzer) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) and the house fly Musca domestica L. (Diptera: Muscidae) are also well poised to help with the challenge of managing animal manure, while generating products of value.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 9722
Author(s):  
Saleha Mahmood ◽  
Christian Zurbrügg ◽  
Amtul Bari Tabinda ◽  
Azhar Ali ◽  
Adil Ashraf

Waste management service is inefficient in peri-urban and rural areas where biowaste is a major component of the household waste produced. Biowaste recycling using black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) at source can reduce the burden on the authorities and add economic value to a yet underutilized resource. This study evaluated the practicability of BSFL bin use at the household level to handle kitchen biowaste by placing three bins per house after 15 days interval of larval feeding. It was found that 50% of the households contacted cooperated well to continue the experiment. A set of instructions for handling BSFL bins based on reasons of agreement and disagreement was developed and shared. Key parameters to evaluate waste treatment performance and larval development were waste dry matter weight reduction (89.66%, SD 6.77%), volumetric reduction (81.3%, SD 4.8), final prepupal dry weight (69 mg/larvae, SD 7.1), biomass conversion rate (12.9%, SD 1.7), metabolism (77.3%, SD 6.0) and residue (10.4%, SD 6.8). On average, 87.7% (SD 9.1) of waste was actually digested, with 16.6% (SD 2.2) efficiently converted into biomass. Initial moisture content of waste was found to be more significant for achieving greater waste dry weight reduction as compared with the feeding rate. Source separation of biowaste and cooperation between households and authorities may lead to successful implementation of BSFL-assisted biowaste bins.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Sheng Zhang ◽  
Yumei Tao ◽  
Yongzhuo Chen ◽  
Pengcheng Liu ◽  
Jialu Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract In nature, competing species often achieve coexistence through niche differentiation. We examined this phenomenon for Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae and Spalangia endius (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), two species of pupal parasitoids that are considered biological control agents of house fly, Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae). We examined the ability of each species, alone and in combination, to locate host pupae buried at different depths (0, 1, 2, 4, and 6 cm) in three types of substrate (sand, dry wheat bran, and spent fly diet). We then evaluated the competitiveness of each species by allowing first one species, then the other species, to parasitise host individuals within time periods ranging from less than 2 hours to 96 hours of each other. Spalangia endius exhibited greater ability than did P. vindemmiae to locate host pupae buried at depths below one centimetre. Conversely, P. vindemmiae exhibited a greater competitive ability, being more likely to emerge from pupae co-parasitised by S. endius, regardless of oviposition interval or sequence. Our findings suggest that these two parasitoid species coexist through niche differentiation. Our findings also indicate that to increase the effectiveness of biological control, the environmental conditions and risk of interspecific competition should be considered when selecting parasitoid species for release.


2004 ◽  
Vol 94 (6) ◽  
pp. 555-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Skovgård ◽  
G. Nachman

AbstractThe efficacy of the pupal parasitoid Spalangia cameroni Perkins as a biological control agent was tested against house flies Musca domestica Linnaeus and stable flies Stomoxys calcitrans (Linnaeus) in one dairy cattle and two pig installations in Denmark. Weekly releases of S. cameroni from April through to September–October 1999 and 2000 resulted in significant suppressions of house fly populations to below nuisance level, whereas no effect on stable flies was found. Parasitism was significantly higher in the release years compared to the control years, but was below 25% averaged over the fly season for each farm. A statistical model based on a functional relationship between the innate capacity of increase of the two fly species and three explanatory variables (air temperature, fly density and parasitism) provided a fairly good fit to data with the abundances of house flies and stable flies explained mostly by temperature, but intra- and interspecific competition, and parasitism had a significant effect as well. Overall, the model was capable of explaining 14% and 6.6% of the total variation in data for house fly and stable fly, respectively. Spalangia cameroni was the predominant parasitoid to emerge from exposed house fly pupae, but from mid summer onwards Muscidifurax raptor Girault & Sanders (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) was also quite common. The study indicated that biological control of house flies can be an efficient alternative to chemical control.


Insects ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 440
Author(s):  
Chelsea D. Miranda ◽  
Jonathan A. Cammack ◽  
Jeffery K. Tomberlin

Few studies have examined the competitive interaction between the house fly (HF) and the black soldier fly (BSF). The fact that the BSF deters HF oviposition is widely cited in BSF literature, but this interaction has not been assessed in over three decades. In this study, the competitive interaction of BSF and HF larvae was observed on fresh (day 0) and aged poultry manure (manure aged for two, four, six, or eight days). Specifically, a priority effect study was conducted to determine if colonization sequence influences time to first pupariation (HF) or pre-pupation (BSF), survivorship, and weight. Results show >70% of HFs reached pupariation in all treatments except when placed on manure eight days after the initial inoculation with BSF. However, age of the resource negatively impacted time to first pupariation and puparium weight when HFs were reared alone or introduced two to eight days after BSF. No BSF pre-pupae resulted from treatments in which HFs were the pioneering species. BSFs reached the highest percent pre-pupation when reared alone on fresh manure, but BSFs may be more susceptible to the negative impacts of an aging resource, as no pre-pupae were observed when provided with six- or eight-day-old manure. Similar to HFs, age of the resource may have impacted development and survivorship; other factors such as moisture content, chemical composition, and amount of resource provided may have also impacted our results. These data may be useful in implementing BSFs as biological control agents of the HF, as well provide valuable information for facilities mass-producing HFs or BSFs for food or feed.


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