A comparison of frozen/thawed and fresh food substrates in development of Calliphora augur (Diptera: Calliphoridae) larvae

While research has examined the effect of freezing and subsequent thawing on the decomposition of carcasses, no studies have investigated the effect of the freezing and thawing of tissues used as a developmental substrate by fly larvae. This paper reports on the results of such a study using larvae of Calliphora augur (Fabricius) on sheep’s liver. Approximately 20 first-instar larvae were collected on sheep liver and subsequently transferred to paired treatments of fresh and frozen/thawed liver equilibrated to room temperature. They were then left undisturbed for 1–10 days. When the allocated time had elapsed, the body length of the larvae in each pair of groups was compared. No significant differences were detected between any pairs at a 1% level and only one pair was significantly different at a 5% level. We conclude that freezing and thawing of a developmental medium of sheep’s liver has no significant effect on growth of C. augur larvae.