Attractiveness of thermally different, uniformly black targets to horseflies: Tabanus tergestinus prefers sunlit warm shiny dark targets.

ABSTRACT: From a large distance tabanid flies may find their host animal by means of its shape, size, motion, odour, radiance and degree of polarization of host-reflected light. After alighting on the host, tabanids may use their mechano-, thermo-, hygro- and chemoreceptors to sense the substrate characteristics. Female tabanids prefer to attack sunlit against shady dark host animals, or dark against bright hosts for a blood meal, the exact reasons for which are unknown. Since sunlit darker surfaces are warmer than shady ones or sunlit/shady brighter surfaces, the differences in surface temperatures of dark and bright as well as sunlit and shady hosts may partly explain their different attractiveness to tabanids. We tested this observed warmth preference in field experiments, where we compared the a

SUBMITTER: Horvath G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6837212 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature