1. The ages of 877 females of the blow¯y Lucilia sericata, collected from two farms in south-west England between May and September 1996, were determined using a combination of ovarian dissection and wing fray analysis.2. Using survivorship analysis, the mortality rates over the entire ®eld season were estimated to be 2.2 and 1.9% per day-degree at the two farms, respectively. These gave a mean life expectancy of 46 and 53 day-degrees, and a lifetime reproductive output of 130 and 172 eggs per female.3. The mortality rate remained relatively constant over time, with one exception, the ®rst sample of the season when no older¯ies were present, indicating that underlying changes in demography (emergence and senescence of generations) over the ®eld season were not suf®cient to affect the rates calculated by survivorship analysis.4. The response of L. sericata to liver-baited traps was affected strongly by age and reproductive status, with gravid females and females in the early stages of ovarian development being most markedly over-represented relative to other age categories.
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