Oogenesis and oviposition in Chrysops atlanticus (Diptera: Tabanidae)

Chrysops atlanticus Pechuman females contained as much as 50% yolk in ovarian follicles one day after eclosion. Autogenous egg development was completed within 10 days of adult emergence. C. atlanticus also produced and deposited eggs in the laboratory following the ingestion of human blood, but neither the rate of follicular development nor fecundity significantly differed when autogenous and anautogenous cycles were compared. In the 40 egg-masses collected from Spartina alterniflora leaves, egg numbers averaged 167.6 and ranged from 15 to 256; hatch rates averaged 78%. Sucrose supplements (10% solutions) enhanced the survival of females in the laboratory by an average of 20 days but had no apparent affect on fecundity. No more than one follicular relic could be found per ovariole in field-caught, host-seeking flies or in a blood-fed female that had oviposited in the laboratory; thus, the reliability of the Polovodova method for physiological age determination of this species is questionable.