292 ALLAN JCINGHORN — NOTES ON THE PRELIMINARY 



Temperature and humidity are factors which have been found to have an 

 inHuence both on the breeding habits, and on the duration of the pupal period, in 

 other species of Ghssina, and it is quite probable that they would have a similar 

 effect in the case of G. morsitans. Such information, however, is lacking at 

 present. 



In this paper the general bionomics are not dealt with, but it may be men- 

 tioned, in connection with the food of this fly, that oval nucleated blood-cells 

 were found in the gut of one, amongst a number of freshly-caught flies which 

 were dissected. 



Technique. 



The method observed in preserving and feeding the captive flies was essentially 

 that described by Kleine.'* 



Freshly-caught flies, two females and one male, were placed in wide-mouthed 

 glass tubes, measuring 5 by 2 inches, and the mouth was then closed over 

 with mosquito-netting held on by an elastic band. The flies were fed daily on 

 native fowls during the warmer hours of the day, when they readily gorged 

 themselves. Eoubaudf has recorded, in the case of Glossina palpalis, that the 

 females do not feed as often as the males, but this has not been found to be so 

 with G. morsitans. Both sexes have fed with equal avidity. After the com- 

 pleted meal, the insects were changed into clean, unlined tubes, and under these 

 conditions it has been possible to keep some of them alive for over two months, 

 at the time of writing, and to obtain larvae. 



When first introduced into the tubes, the flies nre very active, making wild 

 eftorts to escape, but in a very short time thej^ become habituated to their new 

 surroundings and remain quiescent. The males have been found to die much 

 sooner than the females, and this may possibly indicate that the natural duration 

 of their life is shorter. 



Many of the female flies, when first caught, were observed to contain larvae 

 in various stages of development, so that the period which elapsed from the time 

 of ca])ture to that of the first birth varied from four days to over a month. It 

 woidd appear from this, as in the case of G. jiulpalis,] and G. hrerijmlpis,! that 

 the production of larvae proceeds throughout the dry season. 



Breeding Habits. 



Copulation was frequently observed between the captive flies, more often after 

 feeding. During this process the mates are firmly locked together, and refuse to 

 separate even on violent shaking of the tube. It continues for several hours, as a 

 rule, and on a few occasions, two flies which coupled in the afternoon were found 

 the following morning still fastened together. Coupling may occur more than 

 once between the same two flies. 



'"■ Abstracted in Bulletin of Sleeping Sickness Bureau, Vol. iii., No. 2(5. 

 ■\ Roubaud, La Maladie du Sommeil au Congo Fran^iais, Paris, 1909. 



:|; Stuhlmann, " Beitriige zur Kenntniss der Tsetsefliegen," Arl). a. d. Kaiser. Gesundheits- 

 amte, Band xxvi, Heft 3, pp. .SOI -38;-5. 



