Patterns of selective protein ingestion by the blowfly Phormia regina

The patterns of protein ingestion by Phormia regina were reexamined with an apparatus more sensitive than that used in Dethier's (1961) original study. During the first vitellogenic cycle, females exhibited two peaks of protein consumption if given access to protein from the time of emergence. The first occurred during days 1–2 post‐eclosion; the second during days 3–5, when oocytes were developing. Once the eggs were mature, protein ingestion remained depressed until oviposition; it peaked again for 1–2 days following each oviposition. In the male fly only the first peak of elevated protein ingestion occurred; thereafter, protein ingestion remained low. For both sexes, protein‐deprivation, enforced since eclosion, intensified initial protein meals, which thereafter tailed off rapidly.