The Muscoidea community of two adjacent areas was sampled. For eight months one area was of secondary tropical forest and the other was an open field used for cattle grazing. The main purpose of the study was to investigate if there would be any differences in abundance, family diversity, community composition and bait attractiveness. Results suggest that the change in the environment resulted in a reduction of overall abundance, but not a reduced diversity in terms of families. None of the families was led to a marked decrease or increase, as might be expected in a disturbed environment. The changes observed in the community composition were not significant for the distribution and abundance rank of the families within that community. The environmental change also seemed to affect the way the flies responded to the baits.
Muscoidea community; abundance; bait attractiveness; deforestation; diversity