Aspects of the Flight Behavior of the Grass Roots Fly, Inopus rubriceps (Diptera: Stratiomyidae) 1

Inopus rubriceps (Macquart) showed greater attraction of males to purple or white than to green, red, yellow, or black. Females were attracted equally to green, yellow, white, or purple and to a lesser extent to black or red. Of the 22,331 flies caught on a 40-cm-high sticky trap during 2 annual flights, 41.1% were trapped on the first 10 cm above grass level, 29.7% on the next highest 10-cm section, 18.1% on the next higher 10-cm section, and 11.1% on the top 10-cm section. On a 370-cm-high sticky trap no male was trapped above 190 cm and the mean height of those trapped was 14.1 cm; females were caught over the entire range of the trap and the mean was 119.9 cm. Flight activity is limited by high wind speed and low Radiant Heat Load and perhaps by low light intensity.