Aspects of the Flight Behavior of the Grass Roots Fly, Inopus rubriceps (Diptera: Stratiomyidae) 1

Comparison of Coloured Sticky and Water Bath Traps for Monitoring Flight Activity ofInopus rubriceps(Diptera: Stratiomyidae)

“…Similar numbers of females were trapped on the high and low sticky traps, but, as male activity is restricted to just above the pasture level, only 2% of the males trapped on the sticky traps were found on those set at 1 m above ground level. These results agree with previous work by Campbell and Koehler (1975) and Osborn andForteath 11972, 1973, 1974). The colours tested fell dearly into two groups.…”

“…blue, and yellokv. However, Campbell and Koehler (1975) found purple and white had greater attraction to males than green, yellow, red, or black. We found purple attracted few adults and suspect that these conflicting results may be caused by a differing ultra-violet reflectance from the purple paints.…”

“…Previous methods for trapping soldier fly adults have included oil bath traps (Osborn andForteath 1972, 1974;Elder 1969), sticky traps (Campbell and Koehler 1975: Osborn and Forteath 1973, 1974, and suction traps (Osborn and Forteath 1972). Campbell and Koehler (1975) found that I. rubriceps adults respond to colour, with purple and white showing greater attraction to males than red, green, yellow, or black. Females were equally attracted to green, yellow.…”

“…4 RESULTS AND DISCGSSION The results are summarised in table 1. The adults of Inopus rubriceps are slow, weak fliers (Ir~vin-Smith 1920) and the male and female differ distinctly in flight behaviour (Campbell 1975). Males make numerous short zigzag flights close to the pasture, searching for females, with large numbers often in flight at one time.…”