University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Dissertations & Theses in Natural Resources Natural Resources, School of Spring 4-19-2019 SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE FORENSICALLY SIGNIFICANT BLOW FLIES OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (DIPTERA: CALLIPHORIDAE) Royce T. Cumming University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natresdiss Part of the Entomology Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, and the Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons Cumming, Royce T., "SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE FORENSICALLY SIGNIFICANT BLOW FLIES OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (DIPTERA: CALLIPHORIDAE)" (2019). Dissertations & Theses in Natural Resources. 284. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natresdiss/284 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Natural Resources, School of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations & Theses in Natural Resources by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE FORENSICALLY SIGNIFICANT BLOW FLIES OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (DIPTERA: CALLIPHORIDAE) By Royce T. Cumming A THESIS Presented to the Graduate Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science Major: Natural Resource Sciences Under the Supervision of Professor Leon Higley Lincoln, Nebraska April 2018 SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE FORENSICALLY SIGNIFICANT BLOW FLIES OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (DIPTERA: CALLIPHORIDAE) Royce T. Cumming M.S. University of Nebraska, 2019 Advisor: Leon Higley Forensic entomology although not a commonly used discipline in the forensic sciences, does have its niche and when used by investigators is respected in crinimolegal investigations (Greenberg and Kunich, 2005). With many species of forensically significant insects being regionally specific, it is often difficult for forensic entomologists to as confidently translate regionally specific studies across drastically differing geographic regions (Brundage, et al., 2011). The purpose of this study is to help create a better temporal and geographic distributional understanding of the blow fly species present in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Twenty-five locations from four ecoregions (coastal mountains, urban, interior mountains, and desert) were regularly surveyed using baited traps for forensically significant blow flies throughout Los Angeles County from July, 2017 through January, 2018. In total 10,875 arthropod specimens were collected, of which 4,933 were the target family Calliphoridae. Six genera and twelve forensically significant species were recorded from the county during this time period. In addition to the current survey, all specimens from the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History and from select literature were included revealing an additional three species not collected during this current survey. Chrysomya rufifacies and Lucilia sericata comprised most the specimens recorded [collectively 87.9% (61.3% and 26.6% respectively)]. Several species define two ecoregions, Lucilia cuprina was only recorded below 1,000 feet elevation in urban disturbed environments, and Calliphora livida and Calliphora vomitoria define the San Gabriel Mountains having only been found there above about 4,000 feet elevation. Temporally, with Los Angeles having a rather Mediterranean climate year-round it is not surprising that most species have wide temporal distributions with only Calliphora terraenovae significantly restricted to only May-June. In summary, summer was the most species rich season with all 15 species recorded, and the San Gabriel Mountains had the highest diversity with 13 of the 15 species occurring there. i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you first of all to my parents, Connie and John Cumming who most importantly helped to fund this expensive project but who also helped me assemble all of the traps and regularly cut chicken and beef liver with me as I prepared each set of bait. Without the two of you and your support I would never have been able to do this. Thank you to my dear friend, Sierra Teemsma, who helped me remember that a break was necessary every now and then to maintain sanity and who spent hundreds of hours helping me find trap locations, clean dirty traps each week, pin hundreds of specimens, and who never complained that my poor car always smelled like putrefied liver, you are an true wonder. Thank you to all of those individuals who have introduced me to the wonderful world of forensic entomology over the years including, David Faulkner, Anne Perez, Leon Higley, David Wedin, Karl Reinhard, and Neal Haskell. Of course a big thank you goes out to all of my trap location volunteers who allowed me to regularly visit your homes at all hours of the day and leave a stinky fly trap for all to see, this project would have been impossible without you all, thank you Eubanks family, Graboyes family, Miller family, Lara Jacques and Arjay Rafferty, Boord family, Schweitzer family, Andros family, Steinman family, Connell family, Rome family, Warden family, Clark family, and the Byrd-Morrill family. Thank you to BioQuip Products and the Fall family for all of your support over the years in entomology and for helping to finalize the trap design, troubleshoot, and to manufacture all of the traps used in this thesis. Also thank you to Brent Karner, long time “Bug Man” of Los Angeles County who is instant friends with everyone he meets and who helped me track down ii additional trap locations by calling around his vast network of entomology friendly contacts around the county in the search for additional trap locations. Thank you to Weiping Xie, collections manager of entomology and Brian Brown, curator of entomology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County for their assistance in reviewing their Los Angeles County Calliphoridae collection. Terry Whitworth, Calliphoridae taxonomy expert, who confirmed several identifications for me as well as identifying several damaged specimens and specimens that I had trouble keying out to species. And of course, I must thank the wonderful woman who first introduced me to entomology those many years ago and who has forever changed my life, Stella Williams of King City, California, you are an inspiration to many and a world changer to me. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................. i TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... 1 LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………...4 LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ 6 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: BLOW FLIES COMMUNITY MAPPING ............... 8 Forensic Usefulness ............................................................................................................ 8 Reasons for Thesis Location ............................................................................................... 9 BLOW FLIES (DIPTERA: CALLIPHORIDAE) ........................................................ 11 Taxonomy ..................................................................................................................... 11 GOALS ........................................................................................................................ .12 LITERATURE CITED ................................................................................................. 12 CHAPTER 2: TEMPORAL AND DISTRIBUTIONAL BLOW FLY SURVEY MATERIALS AND METHODS ...................................................................................... 15 Survey area........................................................................................................................ 15 Bait trap design ................................................................................................................. 19 Adjustments after week #1 .......................................................................................... 21 Bait preparation ........................................................................................................... 23 Trap placement ............................................................................................................ 25 Trap duration active .................................................................................................... 26 Trap retrieval ............................................................................................................... 27 Specimen processing .................................................................................................... 27 Specimen identification ................................................................................................ 29 2 Review of trap design ....................................................................................................... 30 Survey of previous collections .......................................................................................... 33 RESULTS ......................................................................................................................... 33 SUBFAMILY Polleniinae