Novel use of a servosphere to study apodous insects: Investigation of blow fly post-feeding larval dispersal.

ABSTRACT: Blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) are arguably the most important providers of an estimate of minimum post-mortem interval in forensic investigations. They usually undergo a post-feeding dispersal from the body. While previous studies have looked at dispersal of groups of larvae, recording the dispersal activity of individual larvae has not previously been demonstrated. A servosphere was used here to record the speed, directionality and phototaxis of individual post-feeding larvae of two species of blow fly on a smooth plastic surface over time. The servosphere rotates to compensate for the movement of an insect placed at its apex, thereby enabling its unimpeded locomotion in any direction to be studied and behavioural changes to external stimuli recorded. To our knowledge, the servosphe

SUBMITTER: Mactaggart M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11793127 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature