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Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Laboratory Rearing of Stable Flies and Other Muscoid Diptera
Published on: August 3, 2018
Allozyme variation in stable flies (Diptera: Muscidae)
1Department of Entomology, Iowa State University, Ames 50011.
Abstract:
Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was used to resolve allozymes in the cosmopolitan blood-feeding stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.). Nineteen of 38 loci were polymorphic (53%). Mean heterozygosities among all loci and among only polymorphic loci were 0.096 and 0.182, respectively. These gene diversity measures are about half those among other muscid Diptera. Variation in gene frequencies was examined in 10 natural stable fly populations from Iowa and Minnesota. Gene frequencies were homogeneous at five of eight loci among six populations in 1990 and eight of eight loci among four populations in 1992. Wright's F statistics showed no significant departure from random mating among stable flies. It was concluded that gene flow compensates for any local differentiation in stable fly populations.
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