Dipteran invasion of green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) nests at Heron Island, Queensland

There have been several reports of insect infestations at sea turtle nests, usually by larvae of the dipteran family Phoridae (Fowler, 1979; Bjorndal et al., 1985; Broderick & Hancock, 1997; McGowan et al., 2001) and Sarcophagidae (Lopes, 1982; Broderick & Hancock, 1997; McGowan et al., 2001), but also infrequently by coleopteran larvae (Baran & Turkozan, 1996; Broderick & Hancock, 1997; McGowan et al., 2001) and Hymenoptera (Broderick & Hancock, 1997). These reports have come from green turtle (Chelonia mydas) nests in Costa Rica (Fowler, 1979), Mexico (Lopes, 1982) and Cyprus (Broderick & Hancock, 1997); hawksbill turtle (Erefmochelys imbricata) nests in Costa Rica (Bjorndal et al., 1985); and loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) nests in Turkey (Baran & Turkozan, 1996) and Cyprus (Broderick & Hancock, 1997). There have been no published reports of insects in Australian sea turtle nests. In the 1996/97 and 1997/98 nesting seasons green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) nests at Heron I. (23o26'S 151o55'E) were located after hatchling emergence and excavated according to procedures by described by Philott (2002). Larvae were found in eggs that had failed to hatch, pipped eggs containing dead embryos, and emerged hatchlings remaining in the egg mass (see Table 1).