Substrate Preference of Non-Protein fed and Protein fed Musca domestica
Justin Yeung
ENY3005L, Julianna Xu
Due: November 5th, 2014 Introduction Section Questions
1. What are you experimenting on (organism)?
For this experiment, we chose Musca domestica L., the house fly, as our organism.
2. What is the topic of the experiment?
The topic of this experiment is to examine the habitat preferences of two differently reared Musca domestica in a controlled environment among three substrates.
3. Why would a non-scientist be interested in this topic (specifically)?
The house fly is almost always found in association with humans or human activities. It is the most common species encountered on stables, farms, and ranches. Since house flies are considered as bothersome, pathogen carrying pests, non-scientists may be interested in this topic so that the habitat preferences of house flies may be controlled in a targeted environment (Sasaki et al. 2000).
4. What background information can you find regarding house fly age as it relates to reproductive physiology?
At least one study found that adult fly foods, temperature, and humidity have an …show more content…
In Greenberg’s paper, he analyzes gender and compares the survival values of sucrose and water, and finds that flies live about 50 percent longer on sucrose alone than on water alone, and that female house flies live more than 35 percent longer than male house flies (Greenberg 1960). In Chapman et. al's paper, a study evaluated food odours and female house fly sex pheromones which were applied to a sugar mixture to gauge the attraction potential of such variables (Chapman et al. 1998). Brown’s study concentrated on the development of chemical attractants as bait, and found that none of his compounds were active enough to attractive flies on a per-compound basis but that a combination of a few compounds were successful in attracting flies (Brown