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Life History of Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius, 1775) (Diptera, Calliphoridae), a Blowfly of Medical and Forensic Importance

  • Ecology, Behavior and Bionomics
  • Published:
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Abstract

The life history traits of blow fly Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius, 1775) was studied under semi-controlled laboratory conditions at 29.14°C temperature, 72.53% relative humidity, and 12-h photoperiod. The raw data were analyzed based on the age-stage, two-sex life table, considering the development rates among individuals of both sexes. Cochliomyia macellaria survival rate was 0.43 (♂) and 0.40 (♀), while life expectancy was 17.9 (♂) and 20.9 (♀) days, for adult males and females, respectively. The total fecundity was 681.15 eggs/female, with an average of 3.65 batches/female and 199 eggs/batch. The intrinsic rate of increase (r) was 0.327 days−1, the finite rate of population increase (λ) was 3.35 days−1, the mean generation time (T) was 17.15 days, and the net reproduction rate (R 0 ) was 272.46 offspring/individual. The population parameters found here corroborates that C. macellaria population act as a r selected species under laboratory conditions. Additionally, development data and accumulated degree days (ADD) for each stage of C. macellaria are provided and its implications for the forensic use are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr. Hsin Chi for guiding us in the use of the program for analyzing the life table; the last author thanks Tecnológico de Antioquia-Institución Universitaria for the logistical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grupo de Investigación en Zoología y Ecología, Univ de Sucre, Sincelejo, Colombia

    D M Alvarez Garcia

  2. Lab de Sistemática e Biogeografia de Insecta, Instituto de Biociências, Univ de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, Travessa 14, n.101, São Paulo, SP, CEP 05508-900, Brasil

    D M Alvarez Garcia

  3. Grupo de Investigación en Biotecnología Vegetal, Univ de Sucre, Sincelejo, Colombia

    A Pérez-Hérazo

  4. Grupo de Investigación en Ciencias Forenses y Salud-GICFS, Tecnológico de Antioquia-Institución Universitario, Medellín, Colombia

    E Amat

  5. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia—INPA, CBIO—Coordenação de Biodiversidade, Manaus, Amazonas, Brasil

    E Amat

Authors
  1. D M Alvarez Garcia
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  2. A Pérez-Hérazo
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  3. E Amat
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Correspondence to D M Alvarez Garcia.

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Edited by Simão Dias Vasconcelos - UFRPE

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Alvarez Garcia, D.M., Pérez-Hérazo, A. & Amat, E. Life History of Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius, 1775) (Diptera, Calliphoridae), a Blowfly of Medical and Forensic Importance. Neotrop Entomol 46, 606–612 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-017-0496-0

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