Response of Tabanidae (Diptera) to different natural attractants.

This study investigates how female tabanids, a type of fly, are attracted to different natural substances, particularly various types of aged animal urine. The researchers discovered that traps baited with these natural attractants caught significantly more tabanids than unbaited traps, with aged cow urine proving to be the most effective bait.

Study Location and Procedure

• The research was conducted in the Monjoros Forest, located near the Nature Park Kopacki rit in Eastern Croatia.
• Researchers collected tabanids by setting up canopy traps with different kinds of bait. The bait used were aged urine from cows, horses, sheep, and pigs. Unbaited traps were also set up for comparison.

Results and Findings

• Traps baited with natural attractants collected significantly higher numbers of tabanids than the unbaited traps highlighting the efficacy of natural attractants in trapping tabanids.
• The most effective bait was aged cow urine, followed by horse, sheep, and pig urine.
• Different types of tabanids showed varying preferences for the different baits. The number of females of particular tabanid species, such as Tabanus bromius, Tabanus maculicornis, Tabanus tergestinus, and Hybomitra bimaculata, collected from traps baited with cow urine differed significantly from those drawn to other natural attractants.
• For the species Haematopota pluvialis, more were collected in canopy traps baited with aged cow urine than those with aged horse urine, but this difference was not significant. However, when compared with traps baited with sheep and pig urine, the difference was statistically significant.
• For the species Tabanus sudeticus, aged cow urine caught significantly more flies than aged pig urine.
• Overall, the aged cow urine traps collected 51 times more tabanids than the unbaited traps. The other attractants, namely, horse, sheep, and pig urine, were also considerably more successful than the unbaited traps, attracting 36, 30, and 22 times as many tabanids, respectively.

Conclusion

• This study concluded that certain natural attractants, particularly aged cow urine, are significantly more effective than unbaited traps at attracting and collecting female tabanids.
• The effectiveness can vary depending on the species of tabanids. For example, cow urine was more appealing to certain species of tabanids compared to others.