Effects of diet quality and temperature on stable fly (diptera: muscidae) development

Authors: FLOREZ-CUADROS, MELINA - Comprehensive Center For Investigations In Violence (CIVIF); Berkebile, Dennis; BREWER, GARY - University Of Nebraska; Taylor, David

Submitted to: Insects
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/11/2019
Publication Date: 7/16/2019
Citation: Florez-Cuadros, M., Berkebile, D.R., Brewer, G., Taylor, D.B. 2019. Effects of diet quality and temperature on stable fly (diptera: muscidae) development. Insects. 10(7):E207. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects10070207.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/insects10070207

Interpretive Summary: Stable flies are serious pests of livestock, wildlife and humans throughout much of the world. Immature stable flies develop in substrates composed of rotting vegetation, often contaminated with livestock wastes. Variation in the size of adult stable flies in the field indicates that the nutritional quality of their developmental substrates must vary greatly. However, the effects of such variation on the development of stable flies has not been evaluated. In this study, we examined the effects of substrate quality and temperature on the developmental rate, survival and size of stable flies. Developmental rate varied from greater than 70 days at 15°C to less than 13 days at 30°C and was primarily determined by temperature. Very few stable flies successfully developed to adulthood when reared at 35°C. Size varied between less than 2 milligram pupae with 12% nutrient diet to greater than 15 milligram pupae with the 100% diet. Results of this study permit us to better understand the dynamics of stable fly populations relative to weather and developmental substrates.

Technical Abstract: The effects of diet quality and temperature on the developmental time and size of stable flies, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.), was evaluated. Both developmental time and size varied relative to diet quality and temperature and their effects were additive. Diet quality and temperature made similar contributions to the variance in size whereas temperature was responsible for >97% of the variance in developmental time. Regression analysis predicted the shortest developmental time, egg to adult, to be 12.7 days at 32°C and 70% nutrients. Egg to adult development varied curvilinearly relative to diet quality and temperature on the degree day 10 (DD10) scale taking 261 DD10 at 30°C and 50% nutrients. The thermal threshold was 11.5°C with a thermal constant of 248. Very few stable flies developed to adult emergence on the poorest diet, 12.5% nutrients and adults emerged from fewer than 1% of the puparia developing at 35°C. The heaviest pupae, 15.4 mg developed on the 100% diet at 15°C and adults had a higher probability of emerging successfully from heavier puparia. The length of the discal-medial cell of adult wings had a cubic relationship with puparia weight and peaked at 21°C. Egg to pupariation survival was predicted to peak at 27°C and 71% diet whereas puparia to adult survival peaked at 24°C and 100% diet. Diet quality and temperature had no effect on sex ratio and the rate of development did not differ between the sexes. Female stable flies were ˜5% larger than males. Composite metrics for egg to pupariation and egg to adult fitness were developed. The optima for puparial fitness were 29°C and 78% diet quality and for adult fitness 25°C and 83% diet quality. Diet accounted for 31% of the variance in pupal fitness and 24% of the variance in adult fitness whereas temperature accounted for 17% and 20%, respectively.