Fugitive species and priority during colonization in carrion-breeding Diptera communities

ABSTRACT.

• 1 Experiments were conducted to test for the presence of fugitive species and priority effects among the Diptera species that breed in dead slug carcasses (Limax maximus L.).
• 2 Slug carcasses exposed for only 1 day produced a community that was very similar to that bred from carcasses exposed until fully decomposed. This suggests that competitive ability and dispersal ability are positively correlated in this system.
• 3 The colonization of flies was manipulated by transferring larvae of the phorid, Megaselia scalaris Loew, to carcasses before and after they were exposed in the field. A‘priority effect’was demonstrated in that M.scalaris survived better and had a stronger impact on other species when it was the first species to colonize slug carcasses.