292 ALLAN KINGHORN—NOTES ON THE PRELIMINARY 
Temperature and humidity are factors which have been found to have an 
influence both on the breeding habits, and on the duration of the pupal period, in 
other species of Glossina, 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. Roubaudf 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 are very active, making wild 
efforts to escape, but in a very short time they 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 capture to that of the first birth varied from four days to over a month, It 
would appear from this, as in the case of G, palpalis,t and G. brevipalpis,t 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, ii., No. 26. 
+ Roubaud, La Maladie du Sommeil au Congo Franeais, Paris, 1909. 
+ Stuhlmann, “ Beitriige zur Kenntniss der Tsetsefliegen,” Arb, a. d, Kaiser. Gesundheits- 
amte, Band xxvi, Heft 3, pp. 301-383, 
