﻿198 DR. B. MOISER — NOTES ON THE HAUNTS AND HABITS OF GLOSSINA 



To-day, my boy informed me that he had seen one tsetse in the camp, about a 

 mile from the belt. This fly must certainly have been a " follower." 



The four flies put into the bottle (B) at 11 a.m., were given no food or water. 

 One was a male, and was not distended with blood. This fly was dead at 5 p.m. 

 The other three — females, distended Avith blood — were still alive and strong. 



11th Nov. — This morning, the three flies in bottle (B) are still alive, though 

 evidently weak and hungry. They were all dead at 3 p.m., i.e., after about 

 29 to 30 hours of starvation. 



In bottle (A) one more larva had been deposited during the night, on the piece 

 of liver. It was taken out and placed in another bottle, containing an inch or so 

 of earth at the bottom, to await development. 



Nine adult flies are dead, the rest active, and feeding on their dead companions 

 continually. I saw one fly trying to feed on a larva, but the larva was always 

 pushed to one side by the fly in its efforts, so that the proboscis struck the floor 

 of the bottle, and did not pierce the larva. Up to the present, I have kept one 

 fly alive without food for 2\ days in a bottle in which I placed some water, as 

 well as dried leaves and earth. 



The idea occurred to me yesterday to set up a large mosquito net, 8x8x8 feet 

 in the kurimi, thus enclosing a portion of the natural haunt of the flies, in order 

 to find out where they usually rest. Accordingly, at 7 a.m., we proceeded to 

 the kurimi, and set up the net at a chosen spot, so as to enclose the stump of an 

 ebony tree, bearing a few small branches and leaves, and we also put in and 

 arranged branches of other trees of different kinds. 



One of my bo} r s and I entered the net at about 10 a.m., taking with us a bottle 

 holding eleven tsetses winch had just been caught, and which were then liberated 

 within the net. At first the flies flew in all directions, some five or six of them 

 alighting on the sides of the net, the others being lost to view for a time, but after 

 a few minutes search, we discovered them resting, in an inverted position, on the 

 underside of small branches and twigs close to the ground. They were always 

 on the under side of more or less horizontal branches, and only occasionally on 

 vertical stems. The branches most favoured were those of about J or \ inch in 

 diameter, and sometimes quite small twigs, but never on leaves of any kind. 

 They usually remained seated for a few minutes only, rarely longer than five, 

 meanwhile constantly rubbing their fore and hind legs together, and then took to 

 flight again. They were not disturbed by shaking the branches, even if this 

 were done quite roughly. One fly was seen to alight on the ground, after having 

 been disturbed from a branch, taking up a position under some dead twigs and 

 leaves. Later, a few more flies were seen on dead twigs on the ground. 



We also took into the net a dead monkey, a guinea-fowl and a small blue bird, 

 all of which had just been shot, and these were placed in various positions on the 

 branches ; but we never saw a single fly biting them, or even sitting on them, 

 though the flies bit the boy and myself several times. About an hour later, 

 eleven more flies were liberated within the net. One was seen to sit for a few 

 minutes within a hole in the tree-stump. We never saw a fly on the under side 

 of leaves, though these were carefully watched ; nor was any fly seen to settle on 

 the bole of the tree, except the one that went into the hole, and this did not 

 remain there long. 



