Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T04:07:53.295Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Effects of Air Ions on Duration and Rate of Sustained Flight of the Blowfly, Phoenicia sericata Meigen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

M. G. Maw
Affiliation:
Research Institute, Research Branch, Canada Department of Agriculture, Belleville, Ontario

Abstract

That insect flight is influenced by air ions was shown when blowflies, Phoenicia sericata Meigen, were exposed to air ions at ion currents of about 3.4 × 10−11 amp. Positive ions resulted in longer, faster flights than did normal laboratory air, and there were steep increases and decreases in speed. Negative ions resulted in relatively fast, steady flight that usually lasted longer than in positively ionized or in laboratory air. After exposure to positive ions, exposure to alternating polarities resulted in a steady net increase in flight speed but exposure to alternating polarities after exposure to negative ions had no effect on flight.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1965

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Edwards, D. K. 1960. Effects of experimentally altered unipolar air-ion density upon the amount of activity of the blowfly, Calliphora vicina R. D. Canad. J. Zool. 38: 10791091.Google Scholar
Fabre, J. H. 1918. The sacred beetles and others. Dodd Mead & Co., New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frey, A. H., and Granda, R. E.. 1961. Human reactions to air ions. Proc. int. Conf. Ionization of the Air 2, Sect. XXI: 118.Google Scholar
Hansell, C. W. 1961. Post conference comment by the general chairman. Proc. int. Conf. Ionization of the Air 2, Sect. XXVI: 112.Google Scholar
Maw, M. G. 1962. Some biological effects of atmospheric electricity. Proc. ent. Soc. Ontario 92 (1961): 3337.Google Scholar
Maw, M. G. 1963a. Behaviour of insects in electrostatic fields. Proc. ent. Soc. Manitoba 18 (1962): 3036.Google Scholar
Maw, M. G. 1963b. Physics in Entomology: sound and electricity in insect behavior. Proc. North Central Branch, ent. Soc. Amer. 18: 610.Google Scholar
Uvarov, B. P. 1931. Insects and climate. Trans. R. ent. Soc., Lond. 79: 1247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wellington, W. G. 1957. The synoptic approach to studies of insects and climate. Annu. Rev. Ent. 2: 143162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar