Effects of adding exotic dung beetles to native fauna on bush fly breeding in the field

Egg to pupal survival of bush fly, Musca vetustissima Walker, under field conditions was examined during 1987/88 in an area of south-eastern Australia that had not been colonised by exotic dung beetles. In pads of cattle dung containing only the native fauna, fly survival ranged from 0.3 % to 12.5 %. The addition of 2 species of exotic dung beetles, Euoniticellus fulvus (Goeze) and Onthophagus taurus (Schreber) to field pads, in numbers similar to those observed at the collection site, reduced fly survival to between 0.3 % and 4.4 %. Fly survival in the presence of the native and exotic dung fauna was sufficiently low to keep fly