Apparently, My Project Wasn't Gonna Fly With Him...

Alas, the beloved Blowfly Orientation Experiment (BOE) has been slated for lack of available MS/GC assistance. Fortunately, Kimsey is stubbornly refusing to let me walk away from this summer without a manuscript to publish. Ultimately, what this means is that I need to generate other possible research experiments while I'm waiting for someone to offer thier chemical expertise on the first leg of the BOE. As it turns out, this is a better move, anyway, since the only dominant species of blowfly currently in the Davis area is Phormia regina, which would greatly complicate my aspirations to associate blowfly species to individual decomposition chemicals! So, tenatively, here are some ideas I'm tossing around before my meeting on Monday:

- Do different classes of Animals (Aves, Reptilia, Amphibia, Mammalia, and Humans) hold different degrees of attractiveness, and are some blowfly species more drawn to one class than another, given the choice?

- Do different classes of Animals have significantly different effects on maggot growth rate?

- Does olfaction play any role in maggot behavior, with respect to burrowing orientation?

- Does larval diet affect adult choice of what type of carrion its eggs will be laid?

- How far, or how fast, can a blowfly detect a freshly laid corpse?

- Does a fly's position with respect to wind direction significantly impair ability to orient to an odor source?

Perhaps the wisest choice would be to lay these out in a comprehensive order, such that each one leads into a greater understanding of the next one. However, my ultimate goal lies in Medical Entomology, and therefore, I should be careful to choose only that which I can dovetail in with a more related experiment later this year.