A new fly pest in mushrooms?

摘要

During the course of our work with mushroom flies last year, we received several sticky traps from farms that contained an additional specimen to the usual assortment of sciarids and phorids. We identified this as the sphaerocerid fly, more commonlyknown as the 'dung fly'. Over 100 species of sphaerocerid are native to Britain and they occur in places often associated with decaying matter. For instance, species are found in decaying seaweed on the shore edge, in decaying grass cuttings and in animal dung. The species associated with mushroom houses (Pullimosina heteroneura) can become a serious pest if numbers are allowed to build up. Infestations cause the same type of problems as those associated with sciarids and phorids such as disease transmission and reduced yields due to damaged compost. It is thought that, like sciarids, they are attracted to the compost and artificial light.