Effects of Larval Population Density and Food Type on the Life Cycle of Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae)

Larval density is an important factor modulating larval resource-acquisition, influencing development of insects. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of larval density and substrate content on some life-history parameters of Musca domestica Linnaeus, 1758 (Diptera: Muscidae). This research was carried out from March 2019 through September 2019 at Animal Physiology Laboratory of Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, Turkey. Groups of 25, 100, 200, and 400 newly hatched M. domestica larvae were transferred to a polyethylene cup filled with different substrates (i.e., wheat bran, poultry meal, soybean meal) and kept at 25°C, 62% RH with a photoperiod of 12:12 (L:D) h. A two-way analysis of variance (Two way ANOVA) was used to analyze the data on the percentage of pupal and larval survival development time, pupal, and adult weight to evaluate the effect of density and rearing substrate. In this study, increasing larval density and nutrient content of food led to changes in the larval and pupal development time of M. domestica. The results also indicated that the weight of pupae and adult survival was negatively affected by increasing larval density. The wheat bran diet was superior to the other diets for all parameters tested. Our study indicated that life history parameters of Musca domestica are affected by the rearing conditions.