Muscoid dipterous collected from cattle dung pats in pastures in Itumbiara, Goiás, Brazil

Dípteros muscóides coletados de fezes bovinas em pastagens em Itumbiara, Goiás

dipterous; cattle dung; flies; Brazil

dípteros; fezes bovinas; moscas; Brasil

COMMUNICATION

[COMUNICAÇÃO]

Muscoid dipterous collected from cattle dung pats in pastures in Itumbiara, Goiás, Brazil

[Dípteros muscóides coletados de fezes bovinas em pastagens em Itumbiara, Goiás]

C.H. Marchiori^I; E.R. Caldas^I; K.G.S. Almeida^I; A.X. Linhares^II

^IDepartamento de Ciências Naturais Instituto Luterano de Ensino Superior de Itumbiara Caixa Postal 23-T 75500-000, Itumbiara, GO

^IIDepartamento de Parasitologia da Universidade Estadual de Campinas

^{Correspondence}

RESUMO

A coleta de Diptera em fezes bovinas depositadas nas pastagens foi conduzida de janeiro a agosto de 2001 em Itumbiara, Goiás. As fezes foram expostas nas pastagens por 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144, 168, 192, 216 e 240 horas e posteriormente levadas para laboratório para extração e separação dos dípteros. Um total de 100 fezes bovinas foram expostas nas pastagens, das quais 3099 dípteros muscóides foram coletados. As espécies mais abundantes foram: Palaeosepsis spp. e Sarcophagula occidua. A maioria dos exemplares foi coletada em fezes bovinas expostas nos períodos de 72 e 144 horas no campo.

Palavras-chave: dípteros, fezes bovinas, moscas, Brasil

Keywords: dipterous, cattle dung, flies, Brazil

Cattle dung constitutes an excellent substrate for development of several species of flies in farms (Armitage, 1985), particularly in systems in which the animals are kept under confined and semi-confined conditions.

In spite of being ideally removed regularly from the raising area, the permanence of accumulation of dung favors the development of a quite diversified arthropod fauna. The most important species of pest flies that breed in this environment are: Musca domestica (L.), Stomoxys calcitrans L. and Haematobia irritans L.

Musca domestica is found typically where cattle is kept confined, whereas S. calcitrans and H. irritans are found in cattle dung in pasture. The purpose of this work was to identify the species of Diptera present in bovine feces that had been exposed to different periods of time in a pasture in Itumbiara, Southeastern Goiás.

The experiment was carried out at "Chacara Vilela", located in "Bairro Village" 5km from Itumbiara-GO (18º25’S and 49º13’W), on the margin of the Paranaiba River. This property has an area of approximately 29 ha, where 50 head of crossbred cattle are maintained for milking purpose. Fresh feces were collected immediately after emission and mixed in 20-liter pails. Artificial 2-liter fecal pats were produced and placed inside 10 plastic buckets (40cm of diameter by 12cm of height), containing a layer of 5cm of soil collected from the pasture. A few holes were made in the bottom of the buckets to allow water drainage. The buckets were placed on the pasture, to serve as substratum for the colonization and development of arthropods. Pats were individually retrieved from the field each 24h, up to 240h and taken to the laboratory where they were kept for 10 days. Tem repetitions were done for each exposure time. The buckets were covered with a fine mesh fabric, and kept in the laboratory where the pupae were extracted by water flotation. The pupae were individually placed in gelatin capsules (number 00) and kept until the emergence of the adult flies. The experiment was carried out from January to August, 2001. The species preference by the time of exposition was tested by l ², 5% level of probability (Triola, 1999).

Among the Diptera, Palaeosepsis spp. (Diptera: Sepsidae) were the most abundant, comprising 50.3% of sampled insects, followed by Sarcophagula occidua (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) with 39.1% (Table 1). These results were similar to those obtained by Marchiori and Linhares (2001). It is believed that these fly species are the most well adapted to areas of pasture in Itumbiara-GO. Although adult horn flies were found in the study area, no pupae were found in the pats.

The number of families and species of insects were lower than that reported by Cervenka and Moon (1991). Probably this is due either to a more extensive sampling done by those authors or due to different weather conditions.

Brontaea debilis (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), S.occidua and Palaeosepsis spp. were collected from pats of all exposure times. Sanders and Dobson (1996) reported that Sepsidae are the first flies detected in feces and that probably they are not limited to fresh feces. This statement is based on the fact that apparently some samples produced a second generation. According to Laurence (1955), some Diptera groups, such as Sphaeroceridae and Sepsidae, are not dependent on the time of exposure in the breeding substratum, since one can see more than one generation on the same fecal pat. The collected flies were more abundant in feces of 72h and 144h of exposure (16.6% and 13.6%, respectively).

The results show that the flies were more abundant (52.4%) in fresh fecal pats (Table 1) with highest levels of humidity (24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 hours of exposure).

The collected flies showed the following preferences for fecal pats:Brontaea quadristigma (Diptera: Muscidae) preferred feces exposed 48, 168, 216 and 240 hours; B. debilis for 24 and 168 hours; Cyrtoneurina pararescita (Diptera: Muscidae) preferred 168, 192 and 240 hour-feces; Ravinia belfort (Diptera: Sarcophagidae)preferred 120 and 168 hour-feces; S. occidua 48, 72, 120 and 216 hour-feces; Archisepsis scabra (Diptera: Sepsidae)preferred 192 and 216 hour-feces;Palaeosepsis spp. showed its preference for 96, 144, 168, 216 and 240-hour-feces and Sphaeroceridae for 24 and 192 hours of exposure in the field(l ²= 1085,8; GL=56, P<0,0001).

Recebido para publicação em 5 de dezembro de 2001

Recebido para publicação, após modificações, em 27 de setembro de 2002

• ARMITAGE, D.M. Population changes of four species of insects (Coleoptera: Diptera) in three deep poultry houses. Entomol. Mont. Mag., v.122, p.75-77, 1986.
• CERVENKA, V.J.; MOON, R.D. Arthropods associated with fresh cattle dung pats in Minnesota. J. Kansas Entomol. Soc., v.64, p.131-145, 1991.
• LAURENCE, B.R. The larval inhabitants of cow pats. J. Anim. Ecol., v.23, p.234-260, 1955.
• MARCHIORI, C.H.; OLIVEIRA, A.T.; LINHARES, A.X. Artrópodes associados a massas fecais bovinas no Sul do Estado de Goiás. Neotrop. Entomol, v.30, p.19-24, 2001.
• SANDERS, D.P.; DOBSON, R.C. The insect complex associated with bovine manure in Indiana. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Amer., v.59, p.955-959, 1966.
• TRIOLA, M.F. Introdução à estatística. Rio de Janeiro: Livros Técnicos e Científicos Editora S.A., 1999. 410p.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  23 Apr 2003
• Date of issue
  Feb 2003

History

• Received
  05 Dec 2001
• Accepted
  27 Sept 2002