Influence of attractants on behavior of screwworms (Diptera: Calliphoridae) in a tropical wet forest in Costa Rica.
In a mark-release-recapture study, sheep wounds and rotted liver were used as attractants to study movements of the screwworm fly, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel), in a Costa Rican tropical wet forest in the wet season. When sites were monitored for less than 1 h, liver attracted between 3 and 12.2 times more flies of both sexes than did wounds, but proportionately fewer gravid and parous females. Only 24.6% of females marked at liver sites were recaptured; seldom (3.1%) did they visit sheep wounds. Females originally marked at sheep wounds remained at the study site longer, visited both sheep and liver sites, and greater than 50% were recaptured. Some females were observed for 16 d and one laid four clutches of eggs. Only 8% of the marked males were recaptured and none was recaptured less than 2 d later. Only a small proportion of the adult screwworms at a locality visited wounds on sentinel sheep; the majority of the adults were transient.
Parker
F D
FD
Screwworm Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS, San Jose, Costa Rica.
Welch
J B
JB
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003364:Costa Rica; D004175:Diptera / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement; D012610:Screw Worm Infection / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D012756:Sheep; D012757:Sheep Diseases / Q000469:parasitology*