ARTHROPOD COLONIZATION OF PRE-AGED AS COMPARED WITH FRESH FECES

Abstract

A field study was designed to compare the attractiveness of pre-aged (laboratory incubated) and fresh rabbit feces to potential arthropod colonists. Laboratory collected rabbit feces were incubated on moist peat for intervals of 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 days before exposure (48 h) in one of four field sites in northwestern Pennsylvania. Greater numbers and kinds of arthropods were attracted to 0-day-old dung samples than to fecal pellets that were preincubated for 10 or more days in the laboratory. Furthermore, numbers and kinds of arthropods attracted to fecal pellets increased with increasing habitat complexity. The results indicate that loss in attractiveness of aged feces to potential arthropod colonists cannot be attributed entirely to the drying of the substrate or to prior arthropod colonization. It is suggested that microfloral activity contributes to chemical changes in the incubating feces which render them less attractive to potential early colonists.