ABSTRACT
One difficulty in the maintenance of Chrysomya megacephala under laboratory conditions is the rapid putrefaction of the meal used as rearing media. The objective of the present study was to test under controlled conditions two different diets used as laboratory ration: raw fish meal versus an artificial medium containing meat flour, sawdust and water. The diets were tested using 200 larvae in each of three replicates. We observed that larvae reared on fish meal had an average shorter developmental period (8 days); mean adult emergence of 83.3%; mean fertile female weight of 65.185 mg; mean number of eggs per female of 220.722; mean reproductive investment of 3.599; and mean infertility rate of 43.3%. The larvae reared on the other artificial medium had a longer developmental period (10 days); a mean adult emergence of 86%; mean fertile female weight of 64.882; mean number of eggs per female of 218.515; mean reproductive investment of 3.364; and mean infertility rate of 24.4%. We observed that with both diets there was a proportional relation between the number and weight of eggs for each female, and therefore we concluded that diet does in fact influence the fertility of Chrysomya megacephala under laboratory conditions.
KEY WORDS
Laboratory rearing; nutrition; blowflies
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