New data on Philornis seguyi Garcia (1952)(Diptera, Muscidae)

Abstract

Philornis Meinert is a very interesting Muscidae (Diptera) genus whose larvae are associated with a wide range of bird species. The existing description of Philornis seguyi Garcia (1952), which was reported in Argentina, so far involves only the female. During the 2000-2002 breeding seasons, we collected Philornis flies from six bird species in Buenos Aires province, Argentina. All the flies were identified as P. seguyi. Based on this material, we describe the larva, puparium, adult male, and male and female terminalia. All the host associations presented here -Mimus saturninus (Mimidae), Troglodytes aedon (Troglodytidae), Pitangus sulfuratus (Tyrannidae), Pyrocephalus rubinus (Tyrannidae), Satrapa icterophrys (Tyrannidae) and Molothrus bonariensis (Icteridae) in nests of M. saturninus and Troglodytes aedon -are new for P. seguyi. We also present some data on the biology of the species.

Sexual Differences in Life History Traits ofPhilornis seguyi(Diptera: Muscidae) Parasitizing House Wrens (Troglodytes aedon)

“…House wrens commonly are parasitized by bot flies (Young 1993, Couri et al 2005) and at our study site they are parasitized by P. seguyi (Couri et al 2009). We conducted our study during the host's breeding seasons (October-February) in 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, and 2007-2008.…”

“…In some species, larval development is completed in a 4-8-d period (Teixeira 1999) in which the larvae grow up to 1 cm or more in length and pass through three larval instars (Fraga 1984, Arendt 1985a, Skidmore 1985, Delannoy and Cruz 1991, Spalding et al 2002. After completing its development, the larva detaches from the host and moves beneath the nest material, where it forms a puparium and pupates (Dodge 1971, Skidmore 1985, Couri et al 2005. Larvae abandon the host either when they complete development or immediately af-' Instituto Nacional de Limnología, Ciudad Universitaria Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santa Fé, 3000, Santa Fe, Argentina.…”

“…. Fraga 1984;Arendt 1985a, b;Delannoy and Cruz 1991;Nores 1995;Teixeira 1999;Couri et al 2005Couri et al , 2007Rabuífetti and Reboreda 2007;Antoniazzi et al 2011;Quiroga and Reboreda 2012). Up to now, available data for this genus is limited to 28 species, and for most of them, many aspects of the life history are unknown (Teixeira 1999, Carvalho et al 2005.…”

Botfly Parasitism Effects on Nestling Growth and Mortality of Red-Crested Cardinals

“…Botflies have been reported to parasitize at least 127 species of birds without marked host specificity (Couri 1991, Teixeira 1999. Most botfly species have subcutaneous larvae (Couri et al 2005) and nestlings can be parasitized as soon as they hatch (Arendt 1985b;Cruz 1988, 1991;Spalding et al 2002;Rabuffetti and Reboreda 2007). Botfly larvae feed on red blood cells (Uhazy and Arendt 1986) and remain in nestlings for 5-8 days (Arendt 1985b, Young 1993, Rabuffetti and Reboreda 2007, Quiroga 2009) when they leave the nestling as third instars and pupate in nest material (Uhazy and Arendt 1986).…”

First record of the avian ectoparasite Philornis downsi Dodge & Aitken, 1968 (Diptera: Muscidae) in Argentina

“…Previous studies on Philornis spp. in this country only reported subcutaneous larvae (not a characteristic of P. downsi larvae) in the Provinces of Santa Fe (Antoniazzi et al, 2010;de la Peña et al, 2004), Buenos Aires (Couri et al, 2005;Fraga, 1984;Rabuffetti & Reboreda, 2007), Córdoba (Couri et al, 2005;Nores, 1995), Mendoza (Mezquida, 2003), Tucumán (Dinelli, 1941;García, 1952), Corrientes (García, 1952) and Misiones (García, 1952;Nielsen, 1913;Norris et al, 2010).…”