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Identification and testing of oviposition attractant chemical compounds for Musca domestica.

ABSTRACT: 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 10:24:6:0.2. 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.

SUBMITTER: Tang R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5036095 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:House flies are of major concern as vectors of food-borne pathogens to food crops. House flies are common pests on cattle feedlots and dairies, where they develop in and feed on animal waste. By contacting animal waste, house flies can acquire human pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp., in addition to other bacteria, viruses, or parasites that may infect humans and animals. The subsequent dispersal of house flies from animal facilities to nearby agricultural fields containing food crops may lead to pre-harvest food contamination with these pathogens. We hypothesized that odors from honeydew, the sugary excreta produced by sucking insects feeding on crops, or molds and fungi growing on honeydew, may attract house flies, thereby increasing the risk of food crop contamination. House fly attraction to honeydew-contaminated plant material was evaluated using a laboratory bioassay. House flies were attracted to the following plant-pest-honeydew combinations: citrus mealybug on squash fruit, pea aphid on faba bean plants, whitefly on navel orange and grapefruit leaves, and combined citrus mealybug and cottony cushion scale on mandarin orange leaves. House flies were not attracted to field-collected samples of lerp psyllids on eucalyptus plants or aphids on crepe myrtle leaves. Fungi associated with field-collected honeydews were isolated and identified for further study as possible emitters of volatiles attractive to house flies. Two fungal species, Aureobasidium pullulans and Cladosporium cladosporioides, were repeatedly isolated from field-collected honeydew samples. Both fungal species were grown in potato dextrose enrichment broth and house fly attraction to volatiles from these fungal cultures was evaluated. House flies were attracted to odors from A. pullulans cultures but not to those of C. cladosporioides. Identification of specific honeydew odors that are attractive to house flies could be valuable for the development of improved house fly baits for management of this pest species.

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Identification and testing of oviposition attractant chemical compounds for Musca domestica.

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