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Mathematical model of the survival rates of female bushflies (Musca vetustissima Walker) (Diptera: Muscidae) as inferred from field populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

P. Sands  and
R. D. Hughes
P. Sands
Affiliation:
Division of Computing Research and Division of Entomology, CSIRO, P.O. Box 1700, Canberra City, A.C.T. 2601, Australia.
R. D. Hughes
Affiliation:
Division of Computing Research and Division of Entomology, CSIRO, P.O. Box 1700, Canberra City, A.C.T. 2601, Australia.
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Abstract

Abstract

The survival rate of the females of Musca vetustissima Wlk., the Australian bushfly, was determined as a function of age and size from an analysis of the age-size distribution of 11 530 females caught over a period of four years at three sites in south-eastern Australia. The mean length of life of the largest female flies commonly observed in the field was about 15·5 egg-stage periods, as compared to 8·5 for the smallest flies commonly observed. Over the same range of sizes, the breeding potential of a female varied by a factor of 22 to 1. It was found that the attractiveness of a human observer as a bait to female flies varied with the flies' reproductive state; taking the attractiveness to newly emerged flies to be unity, the attractiveness of the observer to flies that had just laid eggs was 1·22, and to flies in the pre-gravid stage 0·15. The mathematical model presented in this paper is appropriate for use in an overall model of bushfly population dynamics.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 67 , Issue 4 , December 1977 , pp. 675 - 683
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

Hughes, R. D.. (1970). The seasonal distribution of bushfly (Musca vetustissima) in south-east Australia.—J. Anim. Ecol. 39, 691–706.Google Scholar
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Tyndale-Biscoe, M. & Hughes, R. D. (1969). Changes in the female reproductive system as age indicators in the bushfly Musca vetustissima Wlk.—Bull. ent. Res. 59, 129–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar