ON THE BEHAVIOR AND ECOLOGY OF THE FACE FLY, MUSCA AUTUMNALIS (DIPTERA: MUSCIDAE)

Abstract

The face fly, Musca autumnalis De Geer, is continuously present in the field at Guelph, Ont., from April to late October, with peak populations occurring near 1 August. The flies enter buildings only to hibernate, the females doing so in an unfertilized, nulliparous condition. The flies feed only during the daylight hours and primarily on cattle and horses. Infestations on these hosts arc subject to wide daily and hourly variation dependent on temperature, light, precipitation, wind, and behavior of the host.Mating normally occurs as a result of males waiting at particular stations in the pasture to apprehend females flying past. Experiments and observations on a laboratory colony of face flies has disclosed other facets of their sexual behavior.Provided with a suitable proteinaceous diet the face fly can produce an average of 26 eggs per ovarial cycle and a probable maximum of near 230 eggs in a lifetime. Oviposition and (or) successful development will apparently occur only in bovine feces having a certain consistency. Face flies are among the first of the coprophagous insects to reach a dropping; arriving normally within 5 to 10 minutes of its deposition. The dropping remains suitable for oviposition for up to about 3 hours, depending on the rate of drying of its surface.Under normal summer temperature conditions eggs hatched within about 24 hours. The young larvae were initially restricted to the surface layers of the dropping by their respiratory requirements but by the end of the normal 5 to 7 day development period the larvae occupied the entire dropping. Mature third stage larvae pupated in the soil surrounding the dropping.Two hymenopterous pupal parasites Aphaereta pallipes (Say) and Xylaphora sp. accounted for approximately 10% mortality. Face fly adults were preyed upon by the staphylinid beetle Ontholestes cingulatus Gravelle, and the common dung fly, Scatophaga stercoraria (L.).

A Study on the Prevalence and Intensity of Occurrence of Thelazia skrjabini (Nematoda: Thelazioidea) in Cattle in Central Alberta, Canada

“…Teskey (1969) reported that animals in the beef herd he studied in Ontario were normally more heavily infested with face flies than the dairy cows. This difference is likely due to differences in management between beef and dairy cattle.…”

Comparative Morphometric Adaptation of the Housefly and the Face Fly in the United States

“…In the housefly, this was paralleled by seasonal shifts in size within a population, with larger flies occurring during the winter, such that geographic and seasonal adaptation coincided in pattern and nearly in magnitude. We have no similar estimates for seasonal variation in the face fly, but we conjecture that it may not be as important since its activity pattern is limited from about May through October when it seeks refuge in buildings (Hammer, 1942;Teskey, 1969), and would thus not be exposed to recurring selection as the housefly in southern localities.…”

“…In any event, the coincidence of these two patterns suggests that climate could play a major role in limiting the face fly to northern latitudes rather than parasites or predators as studied by Valiela (1969) and Burton and Turner (1970). Indeed, the local densities of adult face flies are affected by humidity and wind, restricting them to areas of lower humidy and wind in the field (Hammer, 1942;Depner, 1969;Teskey, 1969), a reaction also evident in choice tests in the laboratory (Roberts and Pitts, 1971).…”

PARASITES OF FACE FLY, MUSCA AUTUMNALIS (DIPTERA: MUSCIDAE), AND ASSOCIATED DIPTERA NEAR BELLEVILLE, ONTARIO

“…However, the face fly puparia were in a porous layer of vermiculite; and as the parasites did not burrow into sand or fine soil experimentally, parasites of pupae probably attack M. autumnalis much less frequently under natural conditions, where many of the fly pupae are in the soil (Teskey 1969). However, the parasite complex of face fly in eastern Ontario differs qualitatively in several respects from that recorded in south-western Ontario, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Missouri.…”

“…Attempts by the United States Department of Agriculture to establish insect and mermithid parasites from Europe were unsuccessful (Hayes and Turner 1971), and have now been discontinued. To date, the only report of face fly parasitism in Canada is Teskey's (1969) record of Aphaereta pallipes (Say) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and Xyalophora sp. Prerequisites to this procedure are, of course, determination of the identity and distribution of the native parasite species and evaluation of their feasibility for and potential control value in inundation programmes.…”