The Effect of Colour on the Numbers of Housefliesresting on Painted Surfaces

Abstract

A simple technique for determining the preference of houseflies for surfaces of various colors is descr. This consists of liberating adults into a Peet-Grady testing chamber fitted with movable colored corners. The numbers of flies resting on the colored corners are recorded at intervals to provide adequate data for comparison. The ascending order of preference for the particular colors tested was white and sky blue (equal), light grey, green, yellow and medium grey (equal), dusky blue, and red. From measurements of the visual reflectances of the various colors it was found that the order of preference could be explained largely by a reaction to the intensity of the light reflected by the colored surfaces, darker surfaces being preferred to lighter.