Group: Gregory, Natalie, Yina

 

Natalie

 

  1. Duffy, John, and Russell Sage Foundation. A History of Public Health in New York City. Russell Sage Foundation, 1968.

 

This book, written in the early 20th century, provides insight into the various causes of public health outbreaks in New York City. Historically, swine and other livestock were main contributors to health crises, and flies had helped to spread these diseases. However, New York City is no longer home to many farm animals. This might beg the question, why would fly species in New York City still matter? Even though there are few livestock animals left in New York City, the spread of diseases via flies is still a very valid concern, which is what this book touches upon. A perfect example is the Zika virus, which spreads through flies.

 

2) Decoursey, R M. “THE FEEDING HABITS OF THE FIRST INSTAR LARVAE OF  

How does New York City fly population vary as borough location varies? THE CLUSTER FLY.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 75, no. 1941 (1932): 287.

 

Cluster flies are a fly species native to New York state, and have been observed in New York City. In order for a species to remain and thrive in one place, it is necessary that the place has that species’ food readily available. This study dives deep into the feeding habits of cluster flies, and how nutrient rich their food sources are. Unfortunately, Baruch does not grant me access to the full PDF so I could not get a full grasp of the article. Once I do gain access to the full article, I think that this source will provide valuable insight into the relationship between flies and the availability of food. We can apply this insight to BioBlitz data by looking at the observed fly species and comparing it to the food that its habitat offers.

 

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/75/1941/287.1

 

3) http://science.sciencemag.org/content/129/3361/1484/tab-pdf

 

Lambremont, E N, F W FISH, and S. Ashrafi. “Pepsin-like Enzyme in Larvae of Stable Flies.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 129, no. 3361 (1959): 1484-5.

 

Stable flies are very common throughout New York State, since they thrive around water. In New York City there are also large bodies of water, such as the Central Park pond, so I would not be surprised if students observed stable flies or stale fly larvae during BioBlitz. This article is similar to the last one in that it focuses on the digestive aspect of flies. Pepsin is an enzyme that digests proteins, and flies are known to have a protein rich diet. This article can help us determine why we might observe stable flies in BioBlitz data.

 

Greg

 

  1. Lysyk, T. J., L. Kalischuk Tymensen, L. B. Selinger, R. C. Lancaster, L. Wever, and K. J. Cheng. “Rearing Stable Fly Larvae (Diptera: Muscidae) on an Egg Yolk Medium.” Journal of Medical Entomology 36, no. 3 (May 1, 1999): 382-88. doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f

           https://academic.oup.com/jme/article-abstract/36/3/382/919310

 

This study observed the factors that influence the likelihood of larvae survival. It was   concluded that the presence of certain kinds of bacteria is necessary for the survival of larvae. The density of the eggs however, has little bearing on survival rates. Larvae survival in mixed cultures was lower that larvae survival in pure bacteria cultures. This study will help us account for larvae variations throughout NYC.

 

    2.  Imbahale, Susan S., Krijn P. Paaijmans, Wolfgan R. Mukabana, Ron Van Lammeren, Andrew K. Githeko, and Willem Takken. “A Longitudinal Study on Anopheles Mosquito Larval Abundance in Distinct Geographical and Environmental Settings in Western Kenya.” National Institutes of Health, April 10, 2011. doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3080801/

 

This study observed how local environmental characteristics, such as altitude, climate and land use, can significantly impact on phenology and population dynamics of mosquito larvae, and indirectly affect the dynamics of mosquito-borne diseases. The main conclusion of the study was that most mosquito habitats were man-made (moist agricultural environments) as well as grassy areas. We can use similar variables to find how many and the kinds of mosquitoes develop in different parts of NYC.

 

    3.  Nikookar, Seyed Hassan, Mahmoud Fazeli Dinan, Shahyad Azari Hamidian, Seyed Mousavinasab, Mohsen Aarabi, and Seyyed Payman Ziapour. “Correlation between Mosquito Larval Density and Their Habitat Physicochemical Characteristics in Mazandaran Province, Northern Iran.” PLOS, August 18, 2017.

 

https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0005835

 

This study found that characteristics of mosquito larval habitats are important in determining whether they can survive and successfully complete their developmental stages. Therefore, data on the ecological factors affecting mosquito density and abundance especially the physicochemical properties of water of their breeding sites, can possibly be helpful in implementing larval management programs. Such programs can be implemented in NYC as having some kinds of larvae over others is beneficial to the ecology of the city.

 

Yina

1) Teets, N. M. and Hahn, D. A. (2018), Genetic variation in the shape of cold‐survival curves in a single fly population suggests potential for selection from climate variability. J. Evol. Biol., 31: 543-555. doi:10.1111/jeb.13244

 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jeb.13244

 

This study focused on testing how cold weather affects fly population rates. The study came to the conclusion that fly population dwindles during cold temperatures. Since we are in colder months right now this is an important factor to consider because it may skew our results.

 

2) Clandinin, Thomas R., and Lisa M. Giocomo. “Internal Compass Puts Flies in Their Place.” Nature Neurosience 521 (May 14, 2015): 165-66. doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/521165a

 

This article explains that flies have head direction cells which would affect where they constantly return to. This means that certain flies are more likely to reside within the same location without moving too far. We can use this article because it is proof that flies moving throughout boroughs wouldn’t pose an issue for our project.