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KEPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION INTO THE BIONOMICS OF 

 GLOSSINA MORSITANS IN NORTHERN RHODESIA, 1915. 



By Ll. Lloyd, 

 Chief Entomologist in Northern Rhodesia. 



(Plate I.) 



The following report deals with the investigation into the bionomics of Glossina 

 morsitans being carried out in Northern Rhodesia on behalf of the British South Africa 

 Company. 



On my return from leave in July 1914 it was decided to form a base camp close to 

 the railway line. Several areas in the neighbourhood of Broken Hill where fly was 

 reported as being very thick were first examined, but were found from various causes 

 to be unsuitable. A site was finally selected at the source of the Lukanga River, 

 about four miles from the line and near Kashitu station, midway between Broken 

 Hill and Ndoia. Building was commenced in August and completed in October, 

 just before the commencement of the rains. 



Messrs. Eminson and Dollman, who had been working on the Kafue River at 

 Mwengwa, had just reported the discovery of Mutilla glossinae, Turner, a wasp 

 parasitic on the pupae of (jt. morsitans and of considerable importance, since the 

 former worker found that about 10 per cent, of the 350 pupae he had collected were 

 destroyed by this insect. This is the first insect parasite of any tsetse to be found 

 in numbers, and it was decided to let the future investigations centraUse round it. 

 In order to discover whether it was localised or generally distributed, a tour was made 

 through the fly areas of N.E. Rhodesia during the dry season of last year (1915) for 

 the collection of pupae in various localities. About 4,000 were collected and 

 examined. May and July were spent at Chutika (Hargreaves) in the Luangwa 

 Valley, part of August at Nawalia in the Mpika section of the same valley, and 

 September at Ngoa on the plateau near Mpika. Breeding was found to have com- 

 menced in the Luangwa Valley about the middle of April, and by the time the plateau 

 was reached it was at its height. Before dealing with the parasites found, some 

 general questions will be discussed. 



Density of Fly in relation to Game. 



Kashitu is representative of those fly areas in which, though game is relatively 

 scarce, fly appears to be very numerous and troablesome. It is not however an 

 extreme case, such as the immediate neighbourhood of Broken Hill. In the Kashitu 

 area game is not particularly uncommon, but the animals, with the exception of 

 one or two herds of sable, are very restless and do not return to the same spots day 

 after day to feed. The consequence is that the fly is very hungry and both sexes 

 swarm round any person passing through and are all eager to feed. This eagerness 

 to feed gives one at first a false impression of the numbers of fly in the area compared 

 {C250) e2 



