Experience in rearing biology and control of another Philornis species.

QUIROGA, M.

Vienna

Workshop; Experts meeting for the development of an integrated pest management approach including SIT for control of Philornis downsi on the Galapagos Islands; 2018

International Atomic Agency

Such presentation was mainly focused on the work I?ve been doing for the last 12 years on Philornis-host interactions in Argentina, mainland Ecuador and the Dominican Republic. My presentation was divided into two major areas: 1) Rearing Philornis in captivity and 2) Short, mid and long-term control methods. Within the Rearing section, I provided information on the life cycle in captivity of three species of Philornis: P. toquans, P. seguyi and P. pici; the three of them with subcutaneous larvae. Information on sex ratio, life history traits of larvae, pupae and adults as well as on fecundity of females was provided. I also exposed novel information on variation in developmental times of Philornis larvae and pupae at different temperatures; something important in order to achieve captive breeding successfully. All these information obtained from three different species of Philornis, combined with similar information on P. downsi, are of help in order to assess the current state of knowledge. Within the control methods, I provided for the first time scientific data on the effectivenes of Permacap (slow-release permetrhin formula) in preventing parasitism in birds. In this case we tested Permacap on nests of Ridgway?s Hawks (Buteo ridwayi) in the Dominican Republic. A single application during the birds? incubation period proved to increase hawk?s productivity in 179%. Such experiment proved that Permacap may be an effective short-term control method. I also provided preliminary results of the effectiveness of the non-toxic entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana in killing dipterans larvae. None of the larvae exposed to B. bassiana produced adults, except for those incubated at 21 C°, temperature that inhibits fungus activity. In spite that more studies are needed, B. bassiana may be considered as a potential replacement of Permacap in the near future and thus represent a mid-term control methods. However, if its effectiveness is proved in the lab, we will need to determine whether there are native populations of any Beauveria fungus in Galapagos before considering its use in the islands. Regarding predictive models, this is a technique that have never used for Philornis before and will be of great help for conservation and decision makers in order to assess areas of potential Philornis threats for endemic and/or endangered birds. Also, in the case of P. downsi, this may constitute a great tool to predict where flies may be during the off season, when parasite?s populations are reduced, and thus increasing the efficiency of control methods. I worth to remark that the information I provided belong to Philornis species with subcutaneous larvae; which represent about 82% of known Philornis species and are parasites of over 280 bird species in the neotropics. Anyways, as adults of different Philornis species have a similar biology, exposed data is useful for solving the problem with P. downsi in Galapagos.