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Egg to adult survival of the bush fly, Musca vetustissima Walker (Diptera: Muscidae), in irrigated pastures when flood-caused mortality is prevented

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

J. N. Matthiessen  and
L. Hayles
J. N. Matthiessen
Affiliation:
CSIRO Division of Entomology, Private Bag, P.O. Wembley, Western Australia6014
L. Hayles
Affiliation:
CSIRO Division of Entomology, Private Bag, P.O. Wembley, Western Australia6014
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Abstract

Survival of Musca vetustissima Walker from egg to adult in nutritious cattle dung from pasture irrigated during the dry south-western Australian summer was measured in the field. When drowning was prevented by placing dung on a low embankment, survival was high for only the first two months of the fly season, which included the first month of the five-month irrigation period. Substantial emergence of wild M. vetustissima adults from naturally- infested dung occurred only around that time. Survival was so low during the last four months of irrigation, even in the absence of mortality caused by drowning, that irrigated pasture areas in south-western Australia are unlikely to have significantly greater potential for breeding of M. vetustissima than non-irrigated pastures during most of the summer.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 76 , Issue 1 , March 1986 , pp. 59 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

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