Diapause potential in tropical flesh flies

Abstract

FLESH flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) of the temperate region use the short, cool days of late summer and early autumn as a reliable cue to signal the advent of winter^1,2. Flies may enter an overwintering pupal diapause in August, and the adults will not emerge until the following May². Tropical flies, by contrast, are not exposed to a regularly occurring season of lethal temperatures, and flesh flies from Nairobi, Kenya, have been reared outside throughout the year without the occurrence of diapause (D. L. D., unpublished). Yet four species from equatorial Africa that have been examined, Sarcophaga inzi, S. monospila, Poecilometopa punctipennis and P. spilogaster, have all demonstrated the potential to enter pupal diapause. During diapause in both the temperate^1,2 and tropical species, pupal development is halted at the early phaenerocephalic stage.