Diversity of sarcosaprophagous dipterans (Insecta: Diptera) associated with street markets in the semiarid of northeastern Brazil

Abstract

Diptera have high capacity to adapt to anthropized environments and they present high medical and sanitary relevance, since they are related to pathogens transmission and myiasis causing. In this context, it is known that anthropic environments (e.g., street markets) with high human circulation and food supply can directly influence the composition and structure of muscoid dipterans assemblages. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of street markets on the composition and structure of assemblages of flies with sanitary importance in an urban environment of Toritama city, Pernambuco state, Brazil. The flies were captured using adhesive mousetrap “Cola Rato” before and after the occurrence of free markets. A total of 7,780 specimens belonging to six families and 14 species were collected. Muscidae was the most representative and diverse family, with 96.98% of all flies captured and four species. We observed that the assemblages were more abundant after the occurrence of the street markets (H = 6.56; df = 1; P < 0.01). Regarding the composition of the assemblies, 50% of the species were common to both treatments, with emphasis on the dominant species Musca domestica and Megaselia scalaris. This study reveals that free markets can modulate the structure and composition of flies’ assemblages in urban environments, including being able to offer health risks, considering that species of medical importance are related to this environment.