A comparison of frozen/thawed and fresh food substrates in development of Calliphora augur (Diptera: Calliphoridae) larvae

Abstract

While research has examined the effect of freezing and subsequent thawing on the decomposition of carcasses, no studies have investigated the effect of the freezing and thawing of tissues used as a developmental substrate by fly larvae. This paper reports on the results of such a study using larvae of Calliphora augur (Fabricius) on sheep's liver. Approximately 20 first-instar larvae were collected on sheep liver and subsequently transferred to paired treatments of fresh and frozen/thawed liver equilibrated to room temperature. They were then left undisturbed for 1-10 days. When the allocated time had elapsed, the body length of the larvae in each pair of groups was compared. No significant differences were detected between any pairs at a 1% level and only one pair was significantly different at a 5% level. We conclude that freezing and thawing of a developmental medium of sheep's liver has no significant effect on growth of C. augur larvae.

Decomposed liver has a significantly adverse affect on the development rate of the blowfly Calliphora vicina

“…7 mm long), but was a consistent difference of 1 day for feeding larvae that were 2 days or older. No significant differences in length data were observed between the other three diets, similar to the findings of Day and Wallman [7] (Fig. 1).…”

“…There are numerous biotic factors that may affect the development rates of blowfly larvae, and an understanding of these effects is necessary in order to make accurate corrections to a resulting PMI min estimate [2, 8, 12]. One such factor is the effect of diet on the development of immature blowflies and this has been the subject of several recent studies [5–7, 9, 10]. The study by Kaneshrajah and Turner [10] was the first significant contribution to this area and reported differences in the development of Calliphora vicina larvae of up to 2 days, after the first 5 days of development at 20 °C, when larvae reared on pig's liver were compared to those reared on pig's brain, heart, kidney or lung tissue.…”

“…Several notable studies in 2006 looked at a range of diets including the effects of: different organs of one species of animal [6]; the same organ of different animals [5]; different treatments of one organ type, i.e. frozen/thawed vs fresh [7]; and larval densities on a range of different food sources [9]. All these studies have added significant insight into the effects of blowfly larval diet on development, but more work is needed.…”

Development of Thanatophilus micans (Fabricius 1794) (Coleoptera: Silphidae) at constant temperatures

“…Shallow-water hake was chosen because it is the most readily available frozen fish in South Africa, and fish or fish meal is commonly used to raise carcass beetles [5,14]. Frozen fish was chosen as it is readily available, and freezing of food does not influence insect development [22]. Freshly hatched first instar larvae were separated into plastic Petri dishes with pupation substrate (damp sand) and food ad libitum and reared at ten constant temperatures (oviposition temperatures, plus 22.5°C and 32.5°C), ten individuals per temperature, until adults emerged from the pupation substrate.…”

Coleopterofauna found on fresh and frozen rabbit carcasses in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil

“…In this way, it is necessary to study their effects over the entomofauna to analyse the results when such process is confirmed. Day and Wallman (2006) tested if the freezing/thawing affects the growth of Callliphora augur (Fabricius), and concluded that there was no significant effect. However the effects of this process over the entomological succession, remains unknown.…”