S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 54. (Budapest, 1993)
FOLIA ENTOMOLOG ICA HUNGARICA ROVARTANI KÖZLEMÉNYEK LIV 1993 p.107-114 Flies (Diptera) on and in pasture dung in Hungary: a further contribution* By L. Papp (Received February 8, 1993) Flies (Diptera) on and in pasture dung in Hungary: a further contribution. - Flics were collected on the bodies of cattle and sheep and on pasture dung of cattle, sheep, horse and red deer in Hungary; imagoes were reared from cattle and sheep dung samples. The results are summarized in three tables (altogether 8,815 specimens). It was found that regular sprayings on cattle did not change the basic ratios in the dominant dipterous populations (Haematohia spp. to Musca autumnalis) in two cattle farms in C Hungary. Two species of the ceratopogonid genus Culicoides (transmitters of viral diseases), a species of the genus Limonia, the drosophilid species Scaptomyza pallida and several other interesting species were reared from September cow pat samples in Hungary for the first time. A comparison of the species composition of the dipterous assemblages on sheep dung with those on dung of other hoofers does not indicate any significant difference, e.g. any species on red deer dung may occur on sheep dung in Hungary. Introduction The present author has investigated the dipterous species breeding in dung on pastures for more than 20 years. All that work was originally prompted to amass production data and ecological data on flies breeding in cattle pats; later it was widened to the species composition and breeding sites of the flies in stables and other animal houses, and to the species of veterinary importance. Thousands of data on hundred-thousands of dipterous specimens were resulted but they were - with few exceptions - improper for statistical or quantitative ecological approach/analysis. In the last years I was to move into this direction of research. The scientific cognition of the flies breeding in sheep dung forms a separate problem. Sheep is an animal species alien to all landscapes of the present Hungary, it was introduced into the Carpathian Basin only seven thousand years ago. The fly populations found on and breeding in sheep dung on pastures are recruited from the flies breeding in cattle pats and dung of cervid games (Papp 1985). A project was launched here in 1982 to study the interactions of flies and dung beetles in dry sheep pastures (Papp and Ádám 1986), which resulted in a good bunch of important data but that pioneer work was not accomplished. It seemed necessary to collect more data on the species composition of the flies on sheep dung in all parts of Hungary. Indeed, some collectings had been made and results of those collectings were used when an ecological project including the flies and beetles on sheep dung was planned and launched (a project of the National Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) No. 3188), however, these new data have not been published. Results on the flies breeding in dung pats of pastured cattle are significant indeed but ecological knowledge on the individual species is adequate for the most important species only and as a whole do not form a satisfactory basis for planning reasonable control measures against * The elaboration of this material was supported by the National Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) No. 3188.
