Bacteria in stable fly (Diptera: Muscidae) feces inform foraging decisions of conspecific flies
Abstract
Blood-feeding stable flies, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.), are reportedly attracted to conspecific feces. We investigated whether stable flies are attracted to fly feces-derived bacteria, and whether attraction varies with bacterial species and growth substrate, and the sex and reproductive status of foraging flies. We isolated seven bacterial species from fecal deposits of stable flies. In laboratory two-choice bioassays with paired adhesive-coated traps baited with sterile agar or bacteria-inoculated agar, the seven bacterial species in combination repelled flies. However, the bacterial congeners Serratia marcescens and Serratia surfactantfaciens attracted flies when tested singly. Analyses of the headspace volatiles of S. marcescens and S. surfactantfaciens by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed near-identical odor profiles, which may explain their comparable attractiveness to flies. Flies were more attracted to S. marcescens grown on trypticase soy agar than to S. marcescens grown on bovine blood agar, likely due to substrate-dependent odor profiles. Feces-dwelling bacteria appear to function in the context of foraging rather than oviposition given that S. marcescens attracted both female and male stable flies, and both gravid and non-gravid females. That agar plates inoculated with all seven bacterial species failed to attract foraging flies could mean that the microbial community on agar did not sufficiently resemble that in fly feces, perhaps due to the…
Read the paper
Related studies
- A Survey on Knowledge Graphs: Representation, Acquisition, and Applications
- Toxicity of nanomaterials
- The Human Gene Mutation Database: towards a comprehensive repository of inherited mutation data for medical research, genetic diagnosis and next-generation sequencing studies
- Halogen bonding (X‐bonding): A biological perspective
- Biofilm formation at the air–liquid interface by the Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 wrinkly spreader requires an acetylated form of cellulose
- Opioid Activation of Toll-Like Receptor 4 Contributes to Drug Reinforcement
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.