Muscoid-fly Octosporeosis.
Abstract
The research project has as its goal an understanding of how Octosporea muscaedomesticae (Protozoa: Microsporidia) might be manipulated in the applied biological control of noxious muscoid flies. Studies center around an investigation of differential germination in spores; the isolation of a strain of the pathogen with increased virulence; and, the identification of the effects of pH on spores survival in an aqueous medium and the effects of host diet on pathogen proliferation. By monitoring the changes in a population of spores as it passed through the alimentary tracts of flies it was found that all spores do not germinate during the first passage as is generally thought. A knowledge of this fact is vital to the interpretation of dosage and mortality studies. The LT-50 has been reduced to nine days in the selected strain of the pathogen. Spores can tolerate a rather wide range of pH values (2.5 to 9.6) with little or no loss of infectivity, and host diet does not appreciably influence proliferation of the pathogen. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1973
- Accession Number
- AD0764082
Entities
People
- John P. Kramer
Organizations
- Cornell University Department of Entomology