Effect of the Arthropod Community on Survivorship of Immature Haematobia irritans (Diptera: Muscidae) in North Central Florida
Abstract
Field mortality of horn flies caused by the arthropod community was tested by seeding colony-reared horn fly (Haematobia irritans L.) eggs underneath artificial cattle pats placed in the field and collecting the emerging flies using cone traps. Mean numbers of horn flies that emerged from pats exposed to the whole arthropod community during the developmental period of the immature stages were significantly lower than those from pats isolated from all members of the community except Solenopsis invicta Buren. The community-caused mortalities of horn flies were 75.9% and 66.7% in July and August 1992, respectively, with an overall average of 71.3%. Predation by S. invicta raised mortality to at least 93.9%. These results suggest that the other arthropods in cattle dung played an important role in reducing horn fly populations in north-central Florida.Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright for any article published in Florida Entomologist is held by the author(s) of the article. Florida Entomologist is an open access journal. Florida Entomologist follows terms of the Creative Commons, Attribution Non-Commercial License (cc by-nc). By submitting and publishing articles in Florida Entomologist, authors grant the FOJ and Florida Entomologist's host institutions permission to make the article available through Internet posting and electronic dissemination, and to otherwise archive the information contained both electronically and in a hard printed version. When used, information and images obtained from articles must be referenced and cited appropriately. Articles may be reproduced for personal, educational, or archival purposes, or any non-commercial use. Permission should be sought from the author(s) for multiple, non-commercial reproduction. Written permission from the author(s) is required for any commercial reproduction.