Abstract
PROLONGED and uniform trapping of the flies emerging from the bacteria beds of sewage works at Leeds has demonstrated a type of seasonal rhythm that is probably common in rapidly breeding insects. Spaniotoma minima Mg. (Chironomidse) prevails throughout the year, and during eightyears of collecting has appeared in alfnost every week. It is at a minimum about April, increases to a maximum in August or September and thendeclines rather slowly. On the basis of the monthly totals the numerical change is steady and the curve of incidence is moulded partly by the progress-temperature law and partly by the pressure of competing species1. If the weekly catches from the traps are considered, it is seen that whether the general seasonal abundance is low or high there are peak periods of emergence, shallow and obtuse in winter, sharp and abrupt insummer, abrupt and with a tendency to be flat-topped in autumn. There is evidently a periodicity in these peaks and the interval is less than that required for a complete life-cycle. An analysis of the figures shows that successions of generations are running, always two and sometimes three.
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References
Lloyd, Ll., Graham, J. F., and Reynoldson, T.B., Ann. App. Biol. 27, 122 (1940).
Lloyd, Ll., J. Proc. Inst. Sewage Purification, Pt. 1 (1937).
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LLOYD, L. Seasonal Rhythm of a Fly. Nature 147, 811–812 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147811b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147811b0
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