Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T16:25:37.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Metabolic strategies of male and female tsetse (Diptera: Glossinidae) in the field

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

D. J. Rogers
Affiliation:
Hope Deartment of Entomology, University Museum, Parks Road, Oxford, UK
Sarah E. Randolph
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK

Abstract

A scattergram method was developed for explaining the variability in the levels of fat, residual blood-meals and residual dry weights (RDW) of field samples of Glossina. The pattern of changes in mean RDW and fat levels was shown to be similar for five species of Glossina (G. morsitans morsitans Westw., G. swynnertoni Aust., G. fuscipes fuscipes Newst., G. palpoiis palpalis (R.-D.) and G. tachinoides Westw.) but different for the two sexes. On the basis of previous laboratory and field work, a simple descriptive model is developed that suggests priority pathways during the life of the adult fly for the products of successive blood-meals. Initially, for tenerals of both sexes, the priority is to increase thoracic musculature (RDW) without excessive production of fat. Subsequently, male flies devote each blood-meal exclusively to the production of fat, an energy store used mainly for flight activity. Females show a gradual increase in both fat and RDW levels, which probably corresponds with the development of the larva in utero. Wing-fray measurements support this interpretation. During each pregnancy cycle, females accumulate a reserve of fat over and above that necessary for the production of each larva. This is apparently required at the end of each cycle when res piratory losses exceed the energy supply from blood-meals taken. Mean thaematin levels of the four larger species studied (G. morsirans, G. swynnertoni, G. fuscipes and G. palpails) also showed a consistent pattern of change during each pregnancy cycle. Females apparently feed once at the beginning of each cycle, once at a stage of pregnancy when the larva in utero is approaching the moult from the second to the third instar and finally during the middle of the third larval instar, when the meal may be quite small and repeated.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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

Boyle, J. A. (1971). Effect of blood intake of Glossina austeni Newst. on pupal weights in successive reproductive cycles.—Bull. ent. Res. 61, 15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bursell, E. (1959). The water balance of tsetse flies.—Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond. 111, 205235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bursell, E. (1960). The effect of temperature on the consumption of fat during pupal development in Glossina.—Bull. ent. Res. 51, 583598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bursell, E. (1961). Post-teneral development of the thoracic musculature in tsetse flies.— Proc. R. ent. Soc. Lond. (A) 36, 6974.Google Scholar
Bursell, E. (1965). Nitrogenous waste products of the tsetse fly Glossina morsitans.—J. Insect Physiol. 11, 9931001.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bursell, E. (1970). Feeding, digestion and excretion, pp. 305316 in Mulligan, H. W. (Ed.) The African trypanosomiases.—950 pp. London, Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Bursell, E., Billing, K. C., Hargrove, J. W., McCabe, C. T. & Slack, E.. (1974). Metabolism of the bloodmeal in tsetse flies (a review).—Acta Tropica 31, 297320.Google ScholarPubMed
Bursell, E. & Kuwengwa, T. (1972). The effect of flight on the development of flight musculature in the tsetse fly (Glossina morsitans).—Entomologia exp. appl. 15, 229237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buxton, P. A. & Lewis, D. J. (1934). Climate and tsetse flies: laboratory studies upon Glossina submorsitans and tachinoides.—Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Ser. B 224, 175240.Google Scholar
Cmelik, S. H. W., Bursell, E. & Slack, E. (1969). Composition of the gut contents of third-instar tsetse larvae (Glossina morsitans Westwood).—Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 29, 447453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denlinger, D. L. & Ma, W. C. (1974). Dynamics of the pregnancy cycle in the tsetse Glossina morsitans.—J. Insect Physiol. 20, 10151026.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ford, J., Maudlin, I. & Humphryes, K. C. (1972). Comparisons between three small collections of Glossina morsitans morsitans (Machado) (Diptera: Glossinidae) from the Kilombero River Valley, Tanzania. Part 1. Characteristics of flies exhibiting different patterns of behaviour.—Acta Tropica 29, 231249.Google Scholar
Glasgow, J. P. & Prelps, R. J. (1970). Methods for the collecting and sampling of Glossina, pp. 395415 in Mulligan, H. W. (Ed.). The African trypanosomiases.—950 pp. London, Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Hargrove, J. W. (1975a). The flight performance of tsetse flies.—J. Insect Physiol. 21, 13851395.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hargrove, J. W.. (1975b). Some changes in the flight apparatus of tsetse flies, Glossina morsitans and G. pallidipes, during maturation.—J. Insect Physiol. 21, 14851489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langley, P. A. (1968). The effect of host pregnancy on the reproductive capability of the tsetse fly, Glossina morsitans, in captivity.—J. Insect Physiol. 14, 121133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Langley, P. A. (1970). Post-teneral development of thoracic flight musculature in the tsetse-flies Glossina austeni and G. morsitans.—Entomologia exp. appl. 13, 133140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langley, P. A. (1971). The respiratory metabolism of tsetse fly puparia in relation to fat consumption.—Bull. ent. Res. 60, 351358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langley, P. A. & Pimley, R. W. (1974). Utilization of U-14C amino acids or U-14C protein by adult Glossina morsitans during in utero development of larva.—J. Insect Physiol. 20, 21572170.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Langley, P. A. & Pimley, R. W. (1975). Quantitative aspects of reproduction and larval nutrition in Glossina morsitans morsitans Westw. (Diptera, Glossinidae) fed in vitro.—Bull. ent. Res. 65, 129142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCabe, C. T. & Bursell, E. (1975a). Metabolism of digestive products in the tsetse fly, Glossina morsitans.—Insect Biochem. 5, 769779.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCabe, C. T. & Bursell, E. (1975b). Interrelationships between amino acid and lipid metabolism in the tsetse fly, Glossina morsitans.—Insect Biochenl. 5, 781789.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellanby, K. (1936). Experimental work with the tsetse-fly, Glossina palpalis, in Uganda.— Bull. ent. Res. 27, 611632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moloo, S. K. (1976). Storage of nutriments by adult female Glossina morsitans and their transfer to the intrauterine larva.—J. Insect Physiol. 22, 11111115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rajagopal, P. K. & Bursell, E. (1966). The respiratory metabolism of resting tsetse flies.—J. Insect Physiol. 12, 287297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Randolph, S. E. & Rogers, D. J. (1978). Feeding cycles and flight activity in field populations of tsetse (Diptera: Glossinidae).—Bull. ent. Res. 68, 655671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, D. (1977). Study of a natural population of Glossina juscipes fuscipes Newstead and a model of fly movement.—J. Anim. Ecol. 46, 309330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, D. & Boreham, P. F. L. (1973). Sleeping sickness survey in the Serengeti area (Tanzania) 1971. II. The vector role of Glossina swynnertoni Austen.—Acta Tropica 30, 2435.Google ScholarPubMed
Rogers, D. J. & Randolph, S. E. (1978). A comparison of electric-trap and hand-net catches of Glossina palpalis palpalis (Robineau-Desvoidy) and G. tachinoides Westwood (Diptera: Glossinidae) in the Sudan vegetation zone of northern Nigeria.—Bull. ent. Res. 68, 283297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, D. J. & Smith, D. T. (1977). A new electric trap for tsetse flies.—Bull. ent. Res. 67, 153159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, P. (1977). The respiratory metabolism of tsetse flies, Glossina spp., in relation to temperature, blood-meal size and pregnancy cycle.—Physiological Entomology 2, 317322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tobe, S. S. & Davey, K. G. (1972). Volume relationships during the pregnancy cycle of the tsetse fly Glossina austeni.—Can. J. Zool. 50, 9991010.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tobe, S. S. & Davey, K. G. (1974). Autoradiographic study of protein synthesis in abdominal tissues of Glossina austeni.—Tissue & Cell 6, 255268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vale, G. A. (1974). New field methods for studying the responses of tsetse flies (Diptera, Glossinidae) to hosts.—Bull. ent. Res. 64, 199208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar