Animal locomotion often depends upon stabilization reflexes that use sensory feedback to maintain trajectories and orientation. Such stabilizing reflexes are critically important for the blowfly, whose aerodynamic instability permits outstanding maneuverability but increases the demands placed on flight control. Flies use several sensory systems to drive reflex responses, and recent studies hav...

The hunting spider Cupiennius salei uses airflow generated by flying insects for the guidance of its prey-capture jump. We investigated the velocity field of the airflow generated by a freely flying blowfly close to the flow sensors on the spider's legs. It shows three characteristic phases (I-III). (I) When approaching, the blowfly induces an airflow signal near the spider with only little flu...

An insecticide-free sheep blowfly trapping system, utilising a synthetic lure, was evaluated at 4 localities in the Western Cape. Control sites, where no suppression was practised, were identified for each locality. The blowfly population was monitored for 48 hours monthly at each of the localities. Five to 7 suppression traps at the respective localities were identified for this purpose. Three...

A system is described that measures, with a sampling frequency of 1 kHz, the orientation and position of a blowfly (Calliphora vicina) flying in a volume of 0.4 x 0.4 x 0.4 m3. Orientation is measured with a typical accuracy of 0.5 degrees, and position with a typical accuracy of 1 mm. This is accomplished by producing a time-varying magnetic field with three orthogonal pairs of field coils, dr...

We investigated the influence of active membrane properties on the precision by which the stimulus velocity is encoded in the membrane potential of a motion-sensitive interneuron in the blowfly. The so-called HS-cells respond to visual motion stimuli with a graded shift in membrane potential. Superimposed on this graded response are small spike-like events. This "mixed" visual response mode can...

Fly puparia and adult fragments of diptera muscid were found inside the esophagus of a mummified body from the early XIX century, buried inside the crypt of the Sacrament Church (Lisbon, Portugal). The identification of the material revealed a monospecific colonization by Ophyra capensis (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Muscidae), a species known to invade corpses in the ammoniacal fermentation wave. This...

Animal welfare is increasingly being scrutinised in Australia and one issue receiving particular attention is mulesing, the removal of wrinkled folds of skin around a sheep’s breech area to prevent blowfly and maggot infestation. This procedure is commonly performed without any form of pain relief. In the past, it has been justified on the basis of being a preventative health measure against br...

We evaluate the effects the antibiotic Gentamicin on the development of Chrysomya putoria (Wiedemann, 1818). Third-generation, first-instar larvae were reared in a climatic chamber on 60 g of homogenate + agar 65% and were treated with three concentrations of Gentamicin: 4.44 mg/ml, 13.33 mg/ml, and 66.66 mg/ml. The control consisted of distilled water. The relationships between mean body mass ...

Three motion-sensitive key elements of a neural circuit, presumably involved in processing object and distance information, were analyzed with optic flow sequences as experienced by blowflies in a three-dimensional environment. This optic flow is largely shaped by the blowfly's saccadic flight and gaze strategy, which separates translational flight segments from fast saccadic rotations. By modi...