Ovarian development in females of the Australian sheep blowfly, Lucilia cuprina, given limited opportunity to feed on protein-rich material at different ages

Summary

Females of Lucilia cuprina were given ad libitum access to sheep's liver for limited periods at different ages and their degree of ovarian development assessed. For any given feeding regime, ovarian development of flies given access to liver on the day after emergence, or on that day and the following one, was inferior to that of females fed on the 5th, or the 5th and 6th days after emergence. No flies given access to liver for 1 h on the day after emergence matured their ovaries and only a small proportion given this period of access on the 5th day did so. Flies given access to liver for 7 h on one day showed less ovarian development, in terms of both the proportion reaching maturity and number of oocytes developed in females reaching maturity, than flies given access for 1 h on two successive days. Ovarian development of females fed 1 h on the 5th and 6th days after emergence was almost equal to that of flies given access for 48 h. The effect of age does not appear to be due to differential intake but to an increased response, in terms of ovarian development, to the ingestion of a given amount of protein-rich material.

Keywords:

• ovarian development
• protein feeding
• anautogeny
• Lucilia cuprina