The mating sites of the reindeer nose bot fly: not a practical target for control
Abstract
The reindeer nose bot fly Cephenemyia trompe aggregates on hilltops/mountaintops to mate. Although active only for brief periods on certain days, males have been collected only from such sites. To evaluate possible suppression of the fly population by killing males (by insecticides or traps) at such sites, the density of sites and the number of males at each site were monitored in a summer grazing area of the semidomestic reindeer host (Rangifer tarandus) in Finnmark, northern Norway. In an area of ca. 20 km2, 19 mating sites were detected and examined during 4 hours on one day. The number of males observed at most sites was 5-16 (range 3-60). Minor hilltops had few males but at some sites >20-60 flies were dispersed over an area of at least 100 m2. It is concluded that mating sites in the study area are too numerous, and also used by many beneficial non-target species, to be practical targets for control of the species.Authors retain copyright and grant Rangifer irrevocable and non-exclusive right of publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). This means, among other things, that anyone is free to copy and distribute the content, as long as they give proper credit to the author(s) and the journal. For further information, see Creative Commons website for human readable or lawyer readable versions.