The Effect of Higher Temperatures and Contamination of the Food Source on the Fertility Rate of Calliphora vomitoria
School Name
Spring Valley High School
Grade Level
10th Grade
Presentation Topic
Zoology
Presentation Type
Non-Mentored
Abstract
The decline in the usage of maggot therapy happened after the introduction of modern healthcare. Maggot therapy is extremely effective at cleaning wounds and saves hospital costs. Maggot therapy is not being used enough, especially in some areas of the world because there is no efficient production of medical maggots. A potential solution for this is by finding a better way to reproduce bottle flies to increase the use of maggot therapy. Many studies have shown that higher temperatures help bottle flies reproduce faster, but those studies do not show the fertility rates of each experiment. The purpose of this experiment was to find a higher fertility rate by changing the temperature, and the contamination of the food source. It was hypothesized that the fertility rate would be higher if the temperature was higher and the food source was contaminated. In the experiment there were twenty containers for the breeding process and twenty trials for each different experiment. In each container there were about ⅓ lbs of ground beef and 5 Calliphora vomitoria pupae. A t-test showed that the contaminated food source resulted in statistically significant different number of pupae hatched (p = .0342 < a = .05). This supported the original hypothesis, and it can be concluded that a contaminated food source increases the fertility rate of Calliphora vomitoria.
Recommended Citation
Spiva, Freedom, "The Effect of Higher Temperatures and Contamination of the Food Source on the Fertility Rate of Calliphora vomitoria" (2020). South Carolina Junior Academy of Science. 181.
https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/scjas/2020/all/181
Location
Furman Hall 119
Start Date
3-28-2020 11:00 AM
Presentation Format
Oral and Written
Group Project
No
The Effect of Higher Temperatures and Contamination of the Food Source on the Fertility Rate of Calliphora vomitoria
Furman Hall 119
The decline in the usage of maggot therapy happened after the introduction of modern healthcare. Maggot therapy is extremely effective at cleaning wounds and saves hospital costs. Maggot therapy is not being used enough, especially in some areas of the world because there is no efficient production of medical maggots. A potential solution for this is by finding a better way to reproduce bottle flies to increase the use of maggot therapy. Many studies have shown that higher temperatures help bottle flies reproduce faster, but those studies do not show the fertility rates of each experiment. The purpose of this experiment was to find a higher fertility rate by changing the temperature, and the contamination of the food source. It was hypothesized that the fertility rate would be higher if the temperature was higher and the food source was contaminated. In the experiment there were twenty containers for the breeding process and twenty trials for each different experiment. In each container there were about ⅓ lbs of ground beef and 5 Calliphora vomitoria pupae. A t-test showed that the contaminated food source resulted in statistically significant different number of pupae hatched (p = .0342 < a = .05). This supported the original hypothesis, and it can be concluded that a contaminated food source increases the fertility rate of Calliphora vomitoria.
