Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-01T21:34:13.368Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Mating Behaviour of Females of Glossina palpalis (R.-D.) in Captivity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

A. M. Jordan
A. M. Jordan
Affiliation:
Research Entomologist, The West African Institute for Trypanosomiasis Research, Kaduna, N. Nigeria
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Experiments were carried out in the laboratory with individually marked females of Glossina palpalis (R.-D.); various aspects of their mating behaviour, when placed with virgin 7-day-old males, were studied.

Using virgins, females 1–3 days old mated for an average period of about two hours, females 4–9 days old for about 75 minutes, and 10-day-old females for somewhat less than one hour.

Using virgins, mating was found to be relatively infrequent in 1-day-old females, maximal in females 2 and 3 days old and thereafter decreased as the age of the females increased.

Females up to 10 days of age were found to be willing to mate on a number of occasions; re-mating was more frequent among the younger flies. The number of older females of G. palpalis which are prepared to re-mate is very small.

Previously mated females of G. palpalis were shown to be less willing to mate than virgin females of the same age. It seems that this is due to a decrease in desire for mating by the females rather than a loss of attractiveness to males.

The implication of these laboratory findings, in relation to fly behaviour in the field, is discussed. It is suggested that a considerable proportion of young females of G. palpalis is prepared to re-mate in nature, on a number of occasions, but that the desire for mating is extinguished much sooner in life in mated females than it is in virgin females.

Type
Research Paper
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , March 1958 , pp. 35 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1958

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baumhover, A. H. & others (1955). Screw-worm control through release of sterilized flies.—J. econ. Ent., 48, pp. 462–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buxton, P. A. & Lewis, D. J. (1934). Climate and tsetse flies: laboratory studies upon Glossina submorsitans and tachinoides.—Phil. Trans., (B) 224, pp. 175–240.Google Scholar
Gillies, M. T. (1956). A new character for the recognition of nulliparous females of Anopheles gambiae.—Bull. World Hlth Org., 15, pp. 451–459.Google ScholarPubMed
Mellanby, H. (1937). Experimental work on reproduction on the tsetse fly, Glossina palpalis.—Parasitology, 29, pp. 131–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellanby, K. (1936). Experimental work with the tsetse-fly, Glossina palpalis, in Uganda.—Bull. ent. Res., 27, pp. 611–632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nash, T. A. M. (1948). Tsetse flies in British West Africa.—77 pp. [London] Colon. Off., H.M.S.O.Google Scholar
Nash, T. A. M. (1955). The fertilisation of Glossina palpalis in captivity.—Bull, ent. Res., 46, pp. 357–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nash, T. A. M. & Page, W. A. (1953). The ecology of Glossina palpalis in Northern Nigeria.—Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond., 104, pp. 71–169.Google Scholar
Squire, F. A. (1951). Observations on mating scars in Glossina palpalis (R.-D.).—Bull. ent. Res., 42, pp. 601–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, F. A. (1952). On the sex ratio in Glossina.—Bull. ent. Res., 43, pp. 231–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vanderplank, F. L. (1948). Experiments in cross-breeding tsetse-flies (Glossina species).—Ann. trop. Med. Parasit., 42, pp. 131–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar