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Third report on Glossina investigations in Nyasaland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

W. A. Lamborn
W. A. Lamborn
Affiliation:
Imperial Bureau of Entomology.
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Extract

I remained in the proclaimed area till 6th August 1915, then returning to the vicinity of Monkey Bay for the purpose of endeavouring to establish artificial breeding places on a large scale.

While in the proclaimed area I took the opportunity of completing my survey of the distribution of Glossina morsitans, especially in the neighbourhood of Rifu and Kuti described by Dr. Shircore (Bull. Ent. Res., v, p. 87) as “primary centres 1 and 2,” which I had been unable to examine last season before the advent of the rains. As in the case of “ centres 3 and 4,” at Nyansato and Lingadzi respectively, I have not been able to find that the fly is sufficiently localised, even when the dry season is far advanced, as to render feasible any attempt to control it by prophylactic clearing of the bush. In the Rifu district there is a range of rocky hills and high ground running more or less parallel to the lake, with corresponding modification of the soil, so that a zone of scrub has sprung up, from half a mile to two miles in width, consisting very largely of thorn bush, among which are a few big trees. Towards the north this gradually dwindles, to be replaced by the borassus palms usually growing in the sandy ground along the Lake shore, and towards the south it gradually widens out and becomes continuous with the Kuti bush some five miles distant. Throughout its whole extent the fly was plentiful.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , May 1916 , pp. 29 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1916

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References

[*This species is described on p. 93 by Mr. R. E. Turner as Mutilla benefactrix, sp. nov.—Ed.]

* [A more probable explanation is that the Stomatoceras is a super-parasite or competitive direct parasite of the Glossina which, by its quicker development can beat the Mutilla, and may indeed incidentally attack the larva of the latter.—Ed.]

* [Compare the observation by Mr. Ll. Lloyd on p. 77.—Ed.]

† [The evidence that G. morsitans does not normally feed on non-mammalian blood is not quite so conclusive as might appear from these statements. In Northern Rhodesia, Kinghorn, Yorke and Lloyd record (Ann. Trop. Med. Par. vii, 1913, p. 282) that out of 82 flies containing recognisable blood no less than 12, or 14·6 per cent, contained nucleated red cells. Moreover, the preference of G. palpalis for reptilian blood, which has been clearly proved by observations in the field—quite contrary to the laboratory results—shows how dangerous it is to make assumptions as to the natural food of these insects based merely on the behaviour of captive flies under unnatural conditions.—Ed.]

* [In this connexion the result of a very similar experiment in Southern Rhodesia is worth noting. The fly areas in the Mafungabusi district were recently thrown open to indiscriminate shooting for one year. At the end of that period the Government Entomologist visited the locality in order to report on the results; he found that no appreciable diminution of the game, with the exception of elephant, was yet apparent, and the tsetse appeared to be still extending its range in continuance of the movement noted during the past eighteen years.—Ed.]