Griff ER, Kane TC. A housefly sensory motor integration laboratory. Adv Physiol Educ 34: 106–110, 2010; doi:10.1152/ advan.00068.2009.—Insects have many interesting behaviors that can be observed in an introductory biology laboratory setting. In the present article, we describe several reflexes using the housefly Musca domestica that can be used to introduce students to sensory and motor respon...

Musca domestica L. (Diptera: Muscidae) is a relevant domestic, medical and veterinary pest against which new active ingredients must be continuously developed and tested. A key feature of these ingredients is the ability to interfere with the reproductive capacity, causing sterility in both sexes. The authors have developed two simple low-cost devices to evaluate the reproductive capacity in bo...

[Brief letters to the Editor that make specific scientific reference to papers published previously in THE JOtrRNAL OF GENERAL PHWSIOLOOY are invited. Receipt of such letters will be acknowledged, and those containing pertinent scientific comments and scientific criticisms will be published.] Dear Sir: The recent article entitled "Do Flies Have a Red Receptor?" by Goldsmith (1) answers this que...

ABSTRACT The results of a spectroscopic programme aiming to investigate the kinematics of the local interstellar medium components towards the Southern Coalsack and Chamaeleon-Musca dark clouds are presented. The analysis is based upon high-resolution (R ≈ 60 000) spectra of the insterstellar NaI D absorption lines towards 63 B-type stars (d 6 500 pc) selected to cover these clouds and the conn...

The objective of this study was to isolate and identify fungal species found in natural association with adults of Musca domestica. The adult insects were collected from two natural breeding grounds: hog pens and an urban sanitary landfill. The isolated fungi were identified as: Aspergillus flavus (23.8%), A. niger var. niger (14.4%), Penicillium corylophilum (21.4%), P. fellutanum (11.9%), Cla...

A total of 161 strains of Campylobacter fetus subsp. jejuni were isolated from house flies (Musca domestica). The carrier rates detected were 50.7% in flies captured on a chicken farm and 43.2% in flies from a piggery. The relative prevalences of Campylobacter coli, C. jejuni, and nalidixic acid-resistant thermophilic campylobacters were 90.1, 6.2, and 3.7%, respectively. The results indicate t...

The circadian mechanism appears remarkably conserved between Drosophila and mammals, with basic underlying negative and positive feedback loops, cycling gene products, and temporally regulated nuclear transport involving a few key proteins. One of these negative regulators is PERIOD, which in Drosophila shows very similar temporal and spatial regulation to TIMELESS. Surprisingly, we observe tha...

A standardized bioassay previously developed with ivermectin for the yellow dung fly (Scathophagidae) and the face fly (Muscidae) was applied to test the response of 11 dung fly species to the presumably less toxic parasiticide moxidectin. The results were compared to existing data for the same species tested with ivermectin, albeit two new species (Scathophaga suilla and Musca domestica) were ...

In Drosophila, the paired giant descending neurons (GDNs), also known as giant fibers, and the paired giant antennal mechanosensory descending neurons (GAMDNs), are supplied by visual and mechanosensory inputs. Both neurons have the largest cell bodies in the brain and both supply slender axons to the neck connective. The GDN axon thereafter widens to become the largest axon in the thoracic gan...