TY - JOUR A1 - Lutz, Lena A1 - Verhoff, Marcel A. A1 - Rosenbaum, Tabea A1 - Amendt, Jens T1 - On the influence of environmental factors on the oviposition activity of necrophagous flies T2 - Ecological entomology N2 - 1. Locating an optimal oviposition site can be a challenging task for female insects, especially when dealing with a patchy, unpredictable and ephemeral food source such as carrion. Understanding the biotic and abiotic parameters that influence the oviposition behaviour of necrophagous flies is not just of great biological importance but also essential for their application in legal investigations. 2. In this study, we monitored the oviposition activity of necrophagous flies (Calliphoridae, Sarcophagidae) using mouse carcasses in an urban (city) and a rural (mixed forest) habitat in Frankfurt/Germany over a 2-year period. 3. Over 240 sampling days, 220,963 larvae of 4 blow fly species and 1 flesh fly were sampled. The most abundant species was the blow fly Lucilia ampullacea, followed by its family members Calliphora vicina and Lucilia caesar, the flesh fly Sarcophaga caerulescens and Lucilia sericata. Up to seven environmental parameters were statistically significant predictors for a colonisation of the carcasses, leading to unique patterns of seasonal and daily oviposition activity for all five species. 4. Overall, the analysis showed that the seasonal adaption (the phenology of each species), the habitat (rural vs. urban) as well as temperature are the most important factors influencing the oviposition behaviour and activity of necrophagous blow flies and flesh flies. KW - Calliphoridae KW - Central Europe KW - habitat KW - modelling KW - Sarcophagidae KW - seasonal adaption Y1 - 2022 UR - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/75330 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-753305 SN - 1365-2311 N1 - Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. VL - 47 IS - 3 SP - 357 EP - 370 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Oxford [u.a.] ER -