Unanswered Questions about
the Tree Squirrel Bot Fly


A variety of questions regarding the tree squirrel bot fly presently remain unanswered. Some of these are:

  1. Do adult males aggregate in anticipation of unmated females flying by (like certain other cuterebrid species), and if so, where?
  2. Where do adult females lay their eggs? As with many insects, do they use chemical cues (e.g., squirrel scent markings), to decide where to oviposit, or instead rely primarily on vision?
  3. How do nest-bound, nursing-age squirrels get infested? Does this occur solely from infective stage larvae inadvertently brought into the nest by the mother or are eggs laid in or on the nest such that the larvae can directly infest the infant and juvenile squirrels? Can infective stage larvae within a mother squirrel move through her nipples to her nursing offspring?
  4. Do individual squirrels differ in their susceptibility to bot fly infestation, and if so, what factors account for this?
  5. Do the various species of squirrels and other animals attacked differ in their suitability as hosts for the larvae of this parasite, and if so, what factors account for this?
  6. What components of a host (e.g., blood, tissue 'exudate' and cellular 'debris') comprise the diet of the larvae?
  7. Does a bot fly larva produce antibiotic secretions that prevent the interior of the warble from becoming unsuitable due to bacterial infection?
  8. What are the deleterious effects of bot fly infestation on an animal's fitness? For example, although a lactating mother squirrel may survive a certain level of infestation, to what extent might her milk production be reduced, resulting in starvation of her nursing babies?
  9. Are bot flies that infest squirrels the same species as those that attack chipmunks (as currently believed), or do they differ enough in their biology to be considered different species? Alternatively, do they represent 'host races' or subspecies of the same species, with 'squirrel flies' attacking primarily only squirrels and 'chipmunk flies' restricted primarily to chipmunks?
  10. Is C. emasculator one of the species of Cuterebra whose larvae occasionally infect humans?

We hope that additional research will eventually answer these and other questions about the interactions between these parasitic insects and their mammalian hosts.



      Frank Slansky & Lou Rea Kenyon // fslansky@ufl.edu
Version 1.0 (July 26, 2001)