58 



As regards G. brevipalpis in the North Katanga district of Belgian 

 Congo, Dr. Schwetz (132) confirms and amplifies most of the observa- 

 tions by Sanderson and Davey in Nyasaland recorded above, though, 

 unlike Sanderson, he never found the fly resting " under the leaves of 

 bushes, or in the grass." Whether at rest or on the wing, G. brevipalpis, 

 like G. pallidipes and G. fusca, according to Schwetz, prefers and is 

 found almost exclusively along roads and paths. Where it exists, 

 this species occurs indiscriminately in forest, orchard bush, and even 

 well-wooded savannah, and, like the other two species mentioned, it 

 spends the day, or in any case the greater part of it, sitting motionless 

 on the trunks or branches of trees, or on creepers, its resting attitude, 

 like that of G. fusca, being head downwards. G. brevipalpis is stated 

 by Dr. Schwetz, who was the first to meet with the species to the 

 west of the Lualaba, to be less ravenous than its congeners, although 

 the females are much more bloodthirsty than the males. Specimens 

 taken on the wing were almost invariably of the latter sex ; on tree 

 trunks females were very often caught, though never in greater numbers 

 than 10 per cent. G. brevipalpis, which often occurs in swarms, does 

 not fly high, but flits low over the ground ; though it may be seen on 

 the wing in the early morning, its real period of activity is from about 

 half an hour before to half an hour after sunset. It is interesting to 

 note that on several occasions in the afternoon Dr. Schwetz saw a 

 male G. brevipalpis settle upon a leaf of some low-growing plant 

 (especially Amomum sp., a very widely distributed member of the 

 Zingiberaceae, known to the natives as " Mantungulu "), bury its 

 proboscis therein, and suck. 



Lastly, with reference to the habitat of this species as observed by 

 him in North Mossurise, Portuguese East Africa, in 1918, Swynnerton 

 (145) writes : 



Glossina brevipalpis, so far as I have seen (and I was with it for 

 some weeks in all), relies very greatly indeed on shade, and is rarely 

 found away from fairly heavy shade. The requisite degree of shading 

 is provided by wooding with leafy undergrowth. This may be either 

 primary forest (in which the undergrowth is sometimes such as to give 

 sufficient shelter alone . . . .) or secondary bush in leaf with 

 thickets and sapling clumps below. Of these types the primary 

 forest . . . and, in many places and most seasons, heavy 

 Brachystegia bush are the best capable of carrying this tsetse through 

 the dry season. It is not at all dependent on the presence of vleis, 

 and I have found it waiting in all the thickets at some distance from 

 water of any kind and in hot weather in September with the ground 

 baked. It is true that it was in greater numbers near certain little 

 streams than in the Brachystegia thickets, but (as results from the 

 same type of forest away from streams appeared to show conclusively) 

 this was only because those streams were lined with fringing forest 

 of primary type. 



" So dependent does the fly appear to be on good shade that, except 

 in the early morning, after sunset, and on dull days, it will leave animals 

 it is on as soon as they emerge from the shady bush into the sunlight. 

 On dull and rainy days it will follow freely into the most open country 

 and at high noon, so that the term ' crepuscular/ which has been applied 

 to this fly, is not altogether justified by my observations. Thermo- 

 meter readings taken at the same time in primary forest, primary forest 

 with its undergrowth cleared, and, thirdly, in a sapling thicket in 

 Uapaca wooding alongside, were identical, yet brevipalpis had deserted 

 the cleared piece. This, with a failure to take brevipalpis in some 





