Effect of the chemosterilant hexamethylphosphamide on male and female Musca domestica L
Zakharova, N.F.
Meditsinskaia Parazitologiia i Parazitarnye Bolezni 41(3): 311-314
1972
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-8326 PMID: 5055833 Document Number: 46144
An investigation was made of the effect of hempa (hexamethylphosphamide) on males and females of a laboratory strain of Musca domestica L. susceptible to insecticides. Females with mature ovarian follicles were more sensitive to hempa than those with follicles at stage IIb of oogenesis. The reaction to a definite dose of chemosterilant varied greatly among females in the same physiological state, even when they were the progeny of a single female, the correlation coefficient between the amount of drug ingested and the weight of the insect being not more than 0.32 plus or minus 0.14. A single feed on bait containing 2.5% hempa sufficed to give complete sterilisation of all males and of 80% of females in the IIb stage, but of only 8% of females in the Vth stage of oogenesis. This low percentage is considered to be attributable to the fact that females with mature eggs have only a low requirement for food. Males sterilised with hempa were observed to be more active and to mate more frequently than normal males.