Influence of diets on the rearing of predatory flies of housefly larvae

Influência de dietas na criação de moscas predadoras da mosca doméstica

VETERINARY MEDICINE

Influence of diets on the rearing of predatory flies of housefly larvae

Influência de dietas na criação de moscas predadoras da mosca doméstica

P.P. Simon^I; R.F. KrügerII, ^*; P.B. Ribeiro^II

^IInstituto Estadual de Educação José Bernabé de Souza, Cerrito, RS

^IIDepartamento de Microbiologia e Parasitologia - Instituto de Biologia. Universidade Federal de Pelotas. Caixa Posta 354 - 96.010-900 - Pelotas, RS

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the survival, development time and morphological measures of immature Ophyra aenescens and Ophyra albuquerquei on different diets. Different proportions of protein and carbohydrates were offered for each species in 10 vials containing 30 eggs each. The vials were placed in a germination chamber at 30°C, relative humidity above 75% and photoperiod of 12 hours. Every day a vial was removed and mortality was evaluated and on the tenth day the length of the cephalic-pharyngeal skeleton (EC) and body size (G) of larvae that survived were evaluated. Survival was higher in diets with more protein (P<0.001). Between the species, mortality was more pronounced in O. albuquerquei in all diets (P<0.001). The EC (P<0.01) and G (P<0.01) showed the same sizes in the diets with higher protein content. For the production of pupae of these species, the diet with more protein and fewer components is more appropriate, and the production is higher in O. aenescens than in O. albuquerquei.

Keywords:Ophyra aenescens, Ophyra albuquerquei, Musca domestica, Muscidae, biological control

RESUMO

Avaliaram-se a sobrevivência, tempo de desenvolvimento e medidas morfológicas de imaturos de Ophyra aenescens e Ophyra albuquerquei em dietas compostas com diferentes proporções de proteínas e carboidratos. Estas dietas foram oferecidas para cada espécie em 10 frascos contendo 30 ovos cada que foram acondicionados em câmara de germinação a 30ºC, UR entre 75% e 90%, fotoperíodo de 12 horas. Para avaliação do padrão de sobrevivência, um frasco foi retirado da câmara diariamente e foi realizada contagem dos indivíduos vivos. No décimo dia foi avaliado o comprimento do esqueleto céfalo-faríngeo (EC) e o tamanho do corpo (G) das larvas que sobreviveram. O esqueleto céfalo-faríngeo (P<0,01) e o tamanho do corpo (P<0,01) apresentaram os mesmos tamanhos nas dietas com maior teor de proteínas, diferenciando-se nas outras dietas. O padrão de sobrevivência foi mais acentuado em O. albuquerquei do que em O. aenescens (P<0,001), enquanto nas dietas com mais proteínas a mortalidade foi menor que nas dietas com menos (P<0,001).

Palavras-chave:Ophyra aenescens, Ophyra albuquerquei, Musca domestica, Muscidae, controle biológico

INTRODUCTION

The Ophyra Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 (Diptera, Muscidae) species are used in the biological control of Musca domestica L., 1758 (Diptera, Muscidae) in poultry and pig farms in the United States and Europe (Farkas et al., 1998; Hogsette and Jacobs, 1999), which can be used in production systems for dairy cattle (Hogsette et al., 2002). The Ophyra larvae are facultative predators and can kill more than 15 house fly larvae per day (Farkas and Papp, 1990). Despite the successful use of Ophyra to control M. domestica, in Brazil there is still much resistance from producers and difficulty in establishing a pattern of laboratory rearing.

The nutritional basis of the diet for the Ophyra larvae is essentially protein, varying slightly from the proportions of protein and carbohydrates, making it difficult to obtain a standard production (Hogsette, 1992; Hogsette and Koehler, 1992; Hogsette and Washington, 1995; Ribeiro et al., 2000b; Krüger et al., 2003). The use of similar diets reduces the cost of components and facilitates the creation of insects as biological control agents. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of different proportions of protein and carbohydrates on survival, development, and size of Ophyra aenescens (Wiedemann, 1830) and Ophyra albuquerquei Lopes, 1985 larvae's.

MATERIAL E METHODS

The colonies of O. aenescens and O. albuquerquei were obtained from adults caught in poultry farms of Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), RS, Brazil (31º45'48''S, 52º29'02''W) and placed in an incubator room at 25°±1°C, relative humidity between 75% and 90%, photoperiod of 12 hours, for eight and two years, respectively. The adults were fed with a diet composed of milk powder, sugar and fish meal, in a ratio of 2:2:1, respectively. The diets were modified by Ribeiro et al. (2000a) and Krüger et al. (2004) from Hogsette and Koehler (1992) and Hogsette et al. (2002) that used Gainesville and Budapest diets. The O. aenescens and O. albuquerquei larvae were fed according to Ribeiro et al. (2000b) and Kruger et al. (2003) modified from Hogsette and Washington (1995) and Farkas et al. (1998), who used Gainesville and Budapest diets for larvae. The pupae were incubated at 26°C in humid sawdust until adult emergence.

Diets were composed considering the variation of protein and carbohydrates (Table 1), and four diets for immature were composed by proportions as presented in Table 2. For each species in each diet 10 vials containing 30 eggs were placed. The vials were placed in a germination chamber at 30±1ºC, relative humidity between 75% and 90% and photoperiod of 12 hours. One vial of each diet for each species was removed for counting of daily living individuals. The larvae found alive were sacrificed in water with temperature between 70 and 80°C and then were measured and packaged in bottles containing 80% alcohol (Skidmore, 1985).

The survival, length of the cephalopharyngeal skeleton (ES) and body size (G) were used as biometric measurements, referred to as quantitative parameters of the tested diets. The instars were identified as Skidmore (1985), considering the shape of the cephalopharyngeal skeleton and the number of spiracular slits. The variation in the length of ES and G was assessed by ANOVA with F distribution. Analysis of survival was performed considering the Weibull distribution in the "Survreg" package. The treatments of both tests were compared through contrast analysis (Crawley, 2007). Analyses were performed in the statistical program R (R a language..., 2008) considering P<0.05.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The survival of the O. aenescens and O. albuquerquei larvae was higher in diets with more protein than diets with more carbohydrates (χ²=390.48, DF=7, P<0.001), and mortality was more pronounced in O. albuquerquei in all diets (P<0.001, Figure 1). These results are not different from those of Ribeiro et al. (2000b) and Krüger et al. (2003) for these species with diets A and B. Immature stages of O. aenescens have higher development rate than O. albuquerquei because their larvae are smaller, and require less time to complete their development.

The mean mortality time in the diets ranged from 8 to 16 days for O. aenescens and 6 to 10 days for O. albuquerquei according to the estimated models (Table 3). While half the O. albuquerquei individuals die in the larval stage, this will only occur in the pupal stage for O. aenescens in diets A and B. For O. aenescens the results are similar to those found by Hogsette and Washington (1995) and Ribeiro et al. (2000b).

Hogsette and Washington (1995) observed that the development and survival of the O. aenescens larvae were higher in diets with more protein as well as the results in these experiments. This increase in survival on diets with a higher proportion of protein is due to behavioral characteristics of these species. Furthermore, strains of the species that were used in this experiment are already adapted to artificial diets composed of fish meal in high proportion for several generations (Ribeiro et al., 2000a; 2000b; 2001; Krüger et al., 2003; 2004). The adaptation of the high proportion of proteins is a prerequisite for the maintenance of predators in the laboratory. Predatory insects get over 90% of amino acids in diets based on protein (Cohen, 2000).

The increase of protein in the diets had a positive effect on the dimensions of the larvae, such as cephalopharyngeal skeleton (EC) and body size (G) (Table 4). Both the EC (F_3,111=93.15, P<0.01, Figure 2A) and G (F_3,111=427.50, P<0.01, Figure 2B) from third instar larvae were influenced by the diet. The EC presented the same size in diets A, B and C for O. albuquerquei (P=0.76) and A and B for O. aenescens (P=0.53). G was equal in diets A and B for O. albuquerquei (P=0.27) and in B and C for O. aenescens (P=0.38) by analysis of contrasts, and the third instar O. albuquerquei larvae had larger dimensions (EC and G) than O. aenescens larvae (Figure 2, Table 4).

Nutritional deficiencies can cause serious delays in the development of immature Muscidae (Hogsette, 1992). Hogsette and Washington (1995) found a similar pattern to that obtained in this study when evaluating the weight of O. aenescens larvae in different protein concentration. In diets poor in nutrients such as carbohydrate-rich ones the biomass was very low compared to diets rich in protein. Another factor that may influence the measurements of weight and size is the amount of moisture, as observed by Hogsette et al. (2002).

Diets A and B offered to Ophyra species have been used to rear and maintain other species of Muscidae, Synthesiomyia nudiseta (Wulp, 1898) and Muscina stabulans (Fallen, 1817) for a long period, with high survival in all stages development and good egg production (Kruger et al., 2002; 2008; 2010; Krüger and Erthal, 2006; Zimmer et al., 2006). These studies and results confirm the identity rule and the principle of proportionality. The identity rule posits that regardless of the systematic position and food habits, nutritional requirements are the same for most animals. The principle of proportionality of nutrients is key to determine who should receive digestible diets, and the more purified ingredients, higher cost and lower nutritional value for predators (House, 1974; Cohen, 2000) unlike the observed this study.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that diets with a higher proportion of protein in relation to carbohydrates increase the development period and survival rate of Ophyra species. Therefore, diet A is the most efficient for mass rearing of O. aenescens and O. albuquerquei in a strategy for ecological management of M. domestica in livestock production systems.

Recebido em 12 de novembro de 2010

Aceito em 27 de junho de 2011

E-mail: [e-mail]

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*

Autor para correspondência (

corresponding author)

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  19 Dec 2011
• Date of issue
  Dec 2011

History

• Accepted
  27 June 2011
• Received
  12 Nov 2010