Thank you for visiting nature. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer. In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Oviposition attractants for the house fly Musca domestica have been investigated using electrophysiological tests, behavioural assays and field tests.
Volatiles were collected via head space absorption method from fermented wheat bran, fresh wheat bran, rearing substrate residue and house fly maggots. A Y-tube olfactometer assay showed that the odor of fermented wheat bran was a significant attractant for female house flies.
Bioactive compounds from fermented wheat bran for house fly females were identified by electrophysiology and mass spectrophotometry and confirmed with standard chemicals. Four electrophysiologically active compounds including ethyl palmitate, ethyl linoleate, methyl linoleate, and linoleic acid were found at a proportion of Functional imaging in the female antennal lobes revealed an overlapped active pattern for all chemicals. Further multiple-choice behavioural bioassays showed that these chemicals, as well as a mixture that mimicked the naturally occurring combination, increased the attractiveness of non-preferred rearing substrates of cotton and maize powder.
Finally, a field demonstration test revealed that, by adding this mimic blend into a rearing substrate used to attract and breed house flies in West Africa, egg numbers laid by females were increased. These chemicals could be utilized to improve house fly production systems or considered for lure traps. The house fly, Musca domestica L. House flies are particularly difficult to manage because of their ability to feed and reproduce on many types of organic matter, their short developmental cycle and their resistance to insecticides 3.
Thus, new control methods are greatly needed. On the other hand, M. Egg production has been identified as one of the bottlenecks of such production systems 7 , 9. Therefore, any substance that may attract M.
