The Use of Small Plots to Study Populations of Tsetse (Diptera: Glossinidae)

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In the Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe, ULV applications of non-residual insecticide (endo-sulphan and NRDC 161) were made to a 1.8 × 1.8 km block of woodland infested with Glossina morsitans morsitans Westw. and G. pallidipes Austen. The recapture rates of marked flies released in the centre of the block, and recaptured in odour-baited traps in and around the block, indicated that the insecticides killed about 97% of flies that had been released 1–4 hr before spraying. Catches of unmarked male G. m. morsitans in the centre of the block declined after the insecticide applications, but there was no clear effect on catches of female G. m. morsitans and both sexes of G. pallidipes. Data for the movement of marked flies suggested that the minimum daily rates of movement were about 700 m for male G. m. morsitans and about 800 m for the other tsetse. An increase in dawn temperatures, from 17.5 to 27.5°C, was associated with an increase in the rate movement of G. pallidipes in the early morning. The failure to detect changes in the unmarked populations of female G. m. morsitans and both sexes of G. pallidipes was attributed to the high mobilities of these flies and demonstrated that unmarked populations could not be studied satisfactorily in small plots; studies based on marked populations are recommended for such plots.