Case Study: The Queensland Fruit Fly

Drosophila melanogaster is a small, common fly found near unripe and rotted fruit. It has been in use for over a century to study genetics. Thomas Hunt Morgan was the best biologist studying Drosophila early in the 1900’s. Morgan was the first to discover sex-linkage and genetic recombination, which placed the small fly in the forefront of genetic research. Scientists have used Drosophila for many reasons. For one they are very easy to maintain, breed, anesthetize, and kill with little equipment. They are also very small and it is easy to distinguish males vs females and sexually mature flies and virgins. At lastly, the flies have a very short two week life span. On days 2-7 of their life

Mature flies have no functioning mouth-parts and are not associated with transmission of diseases or considered pests

Did you know that you can catch fruit flies WITHOUT our Bait Booster? Yes it is true, bananas alone will do a good job of luring the little critters into eek-o. You just need two extra things, patience and diligence. Patience because it can take up to a day for fruit to start the fermentation process which releases into the air odor signals telling fruit flies that their preferred food source is nearby. And diligence because if you don’t dispose of or empty your trap in a timely manner, the next generation of fruit flies will start to emerge, which can be disconcerting to say the least.

Currently, when managed, they provide crop pollination as well as honey production - But when not in captivity, they become feral and threaten native species in Australia, affecting Australia’s biodiversity.

In areas like Southwest Queensland, it is quite difficult for farmers to undertake effective control of locusts. Therefore the Australian Plague Locust Commission (APLC) organises the aerial application of pesticides onto effected areas, refer to Figure 5. It is not certain that there will be a response from the APLC so ground control is recommended to all landholders in infested areas, this includes them applying pesticides onto their private land. Refer to Figure

Horse Flies are small annoying creatures that grow to be the size of 1 ¼ in. Females primarily feed on blood, yet the male's’ diet is mainly pollen. Small antennas are located on top of their heads. Females have acuminous mouths to extract the blood escaping the exposed wound. Males possess no threat to humans but females are deadly due to their ability to transmit disease by extracting your blood. The information will be divided into three categories disease transmission, Larvae/Adult Diets, and Immune to Pesticide.

True flies are insects of the order Diptera (from the Greek di = two, and ptera = wings). The most obvious distinction from other orders of insects is that a typical fly possesses a pair of flight wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax. (Some species of flies are exceptional in that they are secondarily flightless.) The only other order of insects bearing two true, functional wings plus any form of halteres are the Strepsiptera, and in contrast to the flies, the Strepsiptera bear their halteres on the mesothorax and their flight wings on the metathorax.

The next step involves the collection of the insects and beetles from the body and scene. Adult flies should be caught with a net, and then immobilized in a glass killing jar consisting of a cotton ball soaked in ethyl acetate. After a few minutes the adult flies can be transferred to vial with 75% ethyl alcohol. For the collection of beetles, using forceps or gloved fingers beetle can be placed directly into a vial of 75% ethyl alcohol. The next step is the collection of eggs and approximately 60 larvae from the maggot mass. These can be placed in a killing solution or ethyl alcohol. For multiple sites of maggot colonization, samples should be taken separately. The process should be repeated for obtaining live, non-preserved

Larvae of Ochrogaster lunifer Herrich-Schaeffer (Lepidopetera: Thaumetopoeidae), or as it has previously been known, Ochrogaster contraria Walker or Teara contraria Walker, are widely distributed throughout coastal and inland regions of Australia (Turner 1921; Froggatt 1923; Mills 1951; McFarland 1979). Inhabiting mainly acacia and eucalypt vegetation (Van Schagen et al. 1992), larval populations of O. lunifer display a distinctive processionary behaviour by crawling head to tail in single-file to the canopy of its host tree to feed before returning to their nests in much the same way (Floater 1996a; Maier et al. 2003). Previous studies conducted on O. lunifer have focused on the species life history (Floater 1996a), biology (Van Schagen,

Beauveria bassiana is the fungus with which AGROBIONSA formulates BEA – SIN. BEA – SIN offers a wide host range, including: Whitefly (Bemisia tabaci, B. argentifolli, Trialeurodes vaporarium), May beetles (Phyllophaga sp, Cyclophala spp.), corn stalk borer, among others.

Across the globe, there are many regions that are solely dedicated to produce different types of crops and other produce in order to support the needs and demands of society. Many of these areas are concerned with ways to maximize their crop production, and often many insects, particularly true flies (order Diptera), potentially affect these crops during the growing and harvesting seasons. Dipterans have vastly important roles throughout ecosystems across the world, mainly having the duty of pollinating as well as serving a crucial part of the food chain, allowing many insects and animals a source of food, without having to resort to the ingestion of plants. Many authors have discussed and examined the potential roles that dipterans

The two spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) consider one of the major economic plant feeding pests, attacking a wide range of hosts all over the world, resulting in severe economic injury and occasionally plant death. In Egypt, phytophagous mites are serious pests on crops, vegetable and fruits and frequently cause considerable losses in plant yields, where mites are one of the worst pests of tomatoes and strawberry. T. urticae is feeding on the foliage that may significantly reduce plant vigor, causes necrosis in young leaves and stems, which decreases photosynthesis and transpiration, lower total yield, and diminish fruit quality in case of large population of the spider mite can destroy whole plants, resulting in complete yield loss. Production of high quality strawberry and tomato

You can clean your kitchen until it gleams, but until all potential breeding areas are located and eliminated, fruit flies will spread no matter how much you’ve scrubbed. Generally, they lay their eggs near the surface of fermenting foods and materials. Once they’ve hatched, the tiny larvae continue to feed near the surface of the fermenting mass. What’s worse, the reproductive potential of fruit flies is huge. So, if conditions are right they will lay about 500 eggs. And the entire lifecycle from egg to adult — happens in about one week.

Another problem that these flies cause is that they can hurt the population. Sometimes these flies can infect a majority of a village's

Biology: Burs are the seed of certain dry fruit that has evolved to carry hook like appendages to attach to animals, debris, and other possible carrying materials to increase the likelihood of relocating to a suitable environment. The hook like structures also act as a physical defense against herbivores. The burs attach to passing animals via loop hooking with the fur. Although each microscopic loop hooking takes a relatively small amount of force to break, the combination of many hooks attaching requires great force to break. The dispersal method works by the animal typically removing the bur purposefully after some time following migration due to irritation. Following dispersal, the rooting process initiates and will produce more burs