The influence of a diet based on putrid horse meat over the post-embryonic development of Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius, 1775) under controlled conditions (UR 65 10% and 14 hours of photophase) was compared with the results obtained using a meat broth diet to which other sources of animal and vegetable protein were added. The flies were maintained at 30ºC, from egg until mature larvae spontaneously abandoned the diet. They were then transfered to a climatized chamber at 27ºC. The larvae and pupae viability and the weight of the mature larvae were significantly inferior, when a diet based on meat broth was used, even though the larvae period was significantly increased with this diet. This type of diet did not charge the time of development of the pupae. The inoculation of the egg mass directly over the diet was recommend, instead of the technique in which the egg masses are transfered to humid filter paper, followed by the handling of the recently ecloded larvae.
Insecta; blowfly diet; biology; blowfly