New records of Muscidae (Diptera) in Campo Grande, MS, Brazil

Synanthropic flies outstanding beside other flies due their relative abundance close to domestic animals and human population, to which they are able to cause myiasis or transmit pathogenic agents. As they’re necrophagous they act as corpse decomposers and are useful in the forensic entomology in the post mortem interval determination. This study aimed to know flies diversity and abundance in Campo Grande, State of Mato Grosso do Sul. Captures were made weekly, utilizing three traps baited with decaying fish meat, from June of 2008 to May of 2009 in a remainder ciliary forest of the Embrapa’s Cattle Beef Experimental Farm. The dipterans families that were considered and respectively number of collected specimens were: Calliphoridae (105,334); Muscidae (27,999); Sarcophagidae (21,083); Fanniidae (17,759) and Mesembrinellidae (305), totalizing 172,480 dipterous. To the local known species some Muscidae were increased as follows: Neomuscina atincticosta , Pseudoptilolepis elbida , Polietina orbitalis , Polietina flavithorax , Scutellomusca scutellaris , Graphomya analis and Morellia couriae .

The flies that belong to the Calliphoridae, Mesembrinellidae, Muscidae, Sarcophagidae, and Fanniidae families are mostly associated with decaying meat and/or corpses (D'ALMEIDA; ALMEIDA, 1998;CARVALHO;MELLO-PATIU, 2009).Several species can also develop in vegetable organic matter.Besides its usefulness as a decaying matter decompositor, these flies have great importance as pollinators (FAEGRI; VAN DER PIJL, 1979).They also can cause economic damage when responsible for primary myiasis (Cochliomyia hominivorax) or secondary myiasis (GUIMARÃES; PAPAVERO, 1999).Especially in cattle, an annual loss in meat and milk production estimated at US$ 150 million has been suggested by Grisi et al. (2002), only due C. hominivorax action.By visiting these different food sources, including garbage and sewage, they pose a risk to human and livestock health, due to their ability to convey pathogens (VON ZUBEN et al., 1996).
The most common species on cadavers, because they have their biology well studied, were used as indicators in forensic entomology New records of Muscidae (Diptera) in Campo Grande, MS, Brazil to determine postmortem interval -PMI (SALVIANO et al., 1996;ANDRADE et al., 2005).Besides synanthropic flies, because of their abundance, proximity to man, health, and economic importance, the Calliphoridae and Muscidae families are considered the most interesting (LOPES, 2000).
This study was conducted for a better understanding of local diversity of flies belonging to the families above highlighted.For the catches we used three traps adapted from Ferreira (1978), using as containers for collection two two-liter PET bottles in a system of three funnels of the same type of bottle.The traps were activated for two days a week and catches occurred from June 2008 to May 2009.
The traps were installed in a remnant ciliary forest near the headquarters of the experimental farm of Embrapa Beef Cattle Research Center, 1.2 meters above the floor and about 100 meters distant from each other.Every week, about a third of the bait, 150 grams per trap, was replaced by fish exposed to the environment during 48 hours, with enough water to keep the bait moist during the two days of activation.The fish used is popularly known as "piauthree-spots" -Leporinus reinhardt (Anostomidae, Characiformes).The flies catched were killed with ethyl acetate and taken to the Embrapa Beef Cattle Entomology Laboratory -Animal Health Sector -, at which species screening and quantification were performed based on especific keys (CARVALHO; RIBEIRO, 2000;CARVALHO, 2002;SCHUEHLI;CARVALHO, 2005; CARVALHO; MELLO-PATIU, 2009).After that, species to be confirmed and/or identified were sent to the Federal University of Parana, in Curitiba, to the Center for Environmental and Wildlife Studies (CDZOO).The relative abundance of the families here studied, as well as the mentioned species, is showed on Table 1.
Concerning the geographical distribution of these species, Carvalho (2002) registered that N. atincticosta occurs in Brazil, but it is not specified in wich states of the country.P. elbida is referred only to Paraguay (SCHUEHLI; CARVALHO, 2005); P. orbitalis occurs in Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina; P. flavithorax in Peru and Brazil; S. scutellaris in Brazil; G. analis in Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Brazil; and, finally, M. couriae is reported only to Brazil.

Table 1 .
Species of muscoid dipterans, respective number of specimens and relative abundance, captured weekly with three traps using "rotten fish" in a riparian remaining forest at the Embrapa Beef Cattle Research Center, in Campo Grande, MS, from May 2008 to April 2009.