A simple Method for breeding the House-fly, Musca domestica, L., in the Laboratory

Abstract

Various substances have been used by different workers as substrata for breeding the house-fly under laboratory conditions. Horse manure was recommended by Hutchison (1916), Glaser (1924), Grady (1928), Derbeneva (1935) and Kusina (1936). A mixture of horse manure and hog manure was used by Hockenyos (1931). Feldman-Muhsam (1944) obtained the best breeding results by using cow dung. Pig dung was preferred by Lörincz & Makara (1935). Lodge (1918) reared house-flies on a mixture of casein, bread, water and banana. Richardson (1932) used another mixture of wheat bran, alfalfa meal, diamalt, yeast and water. Kobayashi (1935) used a by-product of soya beans. Basden (1947) in his large scale experiments, necessitating about 2,500 flies daily, used a mixture of middlings, grass meal, tap water, dry malt extract and dried yeast.