Paper 7 assignment
This is a raw manuscript that was submitted for publication. Comments from an anonymous expert
reviewer are appended below.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Do the data in the submitted manuscript make a significant advance over the data previously
published by Rutberg (1987)? (2)
Do you think mosquito activity (unmeasured in this study) might be an important influence on
horse behaviour? (2)
Was the reviewer fair and balanced in their criticisms of the study? (2)
Write a decision statement about whether or not this manuscript be published in the journal
and justify your decision. There are three main areas to think about: 1: Does the experimental
design test the hypothesis described in the introduction? 2: Do the conclusions follow
logically from the data? And 3: Does this study contribute novel insights to behavioural
biology? There are two ways a decision statement can go:
a. Reject – the flaws in the manuscript are fatal and unfixable
b. Tentatively accept pending revision – the flaw are minor and can be addressed in
revision
In your decision statement, state what you think the major flaws are (you may or may not
agree with the reviewer’s opinions) and whether these flaws can be adequately addressed in
revision (choice b) or not (choice a). (4)
Reviewer comments:
GENERAL
This is a well written account of some very interesting research that shows that horse comfort
movements are predictors of fly numbers. However, the paper would be improved by some more
explanatory detail of some entomological points and by taking into account results of other published
work on the same topic in other animal systems. Some of these are listed below.
SPECIFIC
The pages of the ms are unnumbered. The comments below refer to page numbers beginning with the
abstract page as page 1.
Pages 1 and 4. The observations were conducted in June and then again in August, but no mention is
made of the relative abundance of the different species of the various biting insects involved for either
period. However, with 2 species of Tabanus, 2 of Chrysops and Stomoxys calcitrans involved it is
likely that their differing phenologies would have led to differences in their relative abundances in
early June when compared to those in late August. Can the authors supply any data on relative
abundances e.g. from trap catches at the site, preferably at different times? If so, and there were
differences found, then data on differences in the fly numbers in different habitat types would need to
be re-analysed according to month of observation. Similarly, can the authors discount differences in the
timing of daily biting routines as an alternative explanation for the significant effect of temperature that
they report, given that their observations spanned the period 1030 to 1930?
There are reports of the effects of host defensive movements affecting fly biting rates in tsetse flies
feeding on cattle (Baylis 1996, Torr & Mangwiro 2000), warthog (Torr 1994) and a variety of
stationary hosts (Vale 1977) that are relevant to the discussion of defensive reactions, effects of
differences between hosts as well as that on stationary versus moving hosts. For instance, Torr &
Mangwiro reported higher rates of defensive movements in young cattle and thus more flies fed on the
older animals and they also found differences when more than one host animal was exposed. Similar
results have been found with mosquitoes feeding on cattle (Prior & Torr 2002).
Page 9. It is not only CO2 that attracts biting flies and so it may not be metabolic rates that are
determinants of host attractiveness. A cocktail of chemicals is involved (e.g. see Hargrove et al. 1995)
in the attraction of most biting flies in addition to variation in host size, colour and shape. Variations in
the constituents of the odour cocktail between different individual host animals or between animals of
different sexes may account for differences in attractiveness and so the differences found between the
sexes of the horses are unsurprising and consistent with other studies.
Page 3 Lines 3-4. “…,have spend…” is meaningless. Suggest use “spent”.
Page 3. Four lines from the end: There are no authorities given for the scientific names of the insects:
nigrovittatus should be underlined.
Page 5 penultimate line. Replace “it was” with “they were” [Data are plural].
References
Baylis, M. (1996) Effect of defensive behaviour by cattle on the feeding success and nutritional state of
the tsetse fly G. pallidipes (Diptera: Glossinidae). Bull. Ent. Res. 86: 329-336.
Hargrove, J. W., Holloway, M.T.P., Vale, G.A., Gough, A.J.E. & Hall, D. R. (1995) Catches of tsetse
flies (Glossina spp.) (Diptera: Glossinidae) from traps baited with large doses of natural and
synthetic odour. Bull. Ent. Res. 85: 215-227.
Prior, A. & Torr, S. J. (2002) Host selection by Anopheles arabiensis and An. quadriannulatus feeding
on cattle in Zimbabwe. Medical & Veterinary Entomology 16: 207-213.
Torr, S. J. (1994) Responses of tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae) to warthog (Phacochoerus
aethiopicus Pallas). Bull. Ent. Res. 84: 411-419.
Torr, S. J. & Mangwiro, T. N. C. (2000) Interactions between cattle and biting flies: effects on the
feeding rate of tsetse. Medical & Veterinary Entomology 14: 400-409.
Vale, G. A. (1977) Feeding responses of tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinindae) to stationary hosts. Bull.
Ent. Res. 67: 635-649.