Three hundred forty female jewel wasps were reared as larvae on blowfly pupae and then separately exposed as adults to varying numbers and combinations of previously parasitized and unparasitized housefly pupae. Each adult was tested with 6 fresh housefly pupae. Only foraging experience on unparasitized housefly pupae increased host acceptance for subsequent housefly pupae, producing curvilinea...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Houseflies are one of the major pest problems worldwide. The current housefly control strategy in the country hinges on the use of Dichlorvos as a housefly larvicide and pyrethrum spray in kitchens/dining areas. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the newer housefly control options in the wake of concerns about human toxicity of Dichlorvos and its continued use ...

The insect kinins are present in a wide variety of insects and function as potent diuretic peptides in flies. A C-terminal aldehyde insect kinin analog, Fmoc-RFFPWG-H (R-LK-CHO), demonstrates stimulation of Malpighian tubule fluid secretion in crickets, but shows inhibition of both in vitro and in vivo diuresis in the housefly. R-LK-CHO reduced the total amount of urine voided over 3 h from fli...

The genetic cascades regulating sex determination of the housefly, Musca domestica, and the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, appear strikingly different. The bifunctional switch gene doublesex, however, is present at the bottom of the regulatory cascades of both species, and so is transformer-2, one of the genetic elements required for the sex-specific regulation of doublesex. The upstream re...

Evaluation of anthelmintic activity of any drug when carried out in laboratory conditions by using the isolated worms from nature cannot be adaptable with artificial laboratory conditions. Therefore, the present study aims at developing a new adaptable method for evaluation of anthelmintic activity. The present anthelmintic activity study reveals a new methodology with housefly worms cultured i...

The housefly feeds and reproduces in animal manure and decaying organic substances and thus lives in intimate association with various microorganisms including human pathogens. In order to understand the variation and association between bacteria and the housefly, we used 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to describe bacterial communities of 90 individual houseflies collected within and between...

BACKGROUND Shigella infections are a public health problem in developing and transitional countries because of high transmissibility, severity of clinical disease, widespread antibiotic resistance and lack of a licensed vaccine. Whereas Shigellae are known to be transmitted primarily by direct fecal-oral contact and less commonly by contaminated food and water, the role of the housefly Musca do...

Griff ER, Kane TC. A housefly sensory motor integration laboratory. Adv Physiol Educ 34: 106–110, 2010; doi:10.1152/ advan.00068.2009.—Insects have many interesting behaviors that can be observed in an introductory biology laboratory setting. In the present article, we describe several reflexes using the housefly Musca domestica that can be used to introduce students to sensory and motor respon...

Any deviation in ambient temperature causes stress and disturbs the cellular homeostasis in the organisms. In the present study, genotoxicity induced by exposure of high temperature (40o, 45o and 50oC) has been analyzed in the third instar larvae of common housefly, Musca domestica, by using chromosome aberration assay, micronucleus assay and mitotic index as cytological end points. The adverse...