Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:08:13.218Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Changes in the probing responsiveness of starving tsetse flies (Glossina morsitans Westw.) (Diptera, Glossinidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

John Brady
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology & Applied Entomology, Imperial College of Science & Technology, London SW7

Abstract

Responsiveness to stimuli eliciting probing was measured in individual, suspended males of Glossina morsitans Westw. The standard stimulus was a warmed foam rubber ball offered from below; a positive response was recorded if the fly exsheathed its haustellum and probed the foam. During four days without food, probing responsiveness increased linearly from zero in mature flies, but with an initial step-up in tenerals. Each day's increase was steeper than the overall rate, and apparently modulated in the V-shaped pattern typical of other responses in tsetse flies. Starvation is thus seen to induce changes in feeding thresholds which parallel those induced in flight behaviour.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brady, J. (1972a). Spontaneous, circadian components of tsetse fly activity. — J. Insect Physiol. 18, 471484.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brady, J. (1972b). The visual responsiveness of the tsetse fly Glossina morsitans Westw. (Glossinidae) to moving objects: the effects of hunger, sex, host odour and stimulus characteristics. — Bull. ent. Res. 62, 257279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brady, J. (1973a). The physiology and behaviour of starving tsetse flies. — Trans. R. Soc. trop. Med. Hyg. 67, 297.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brady, J. (1973b). The physiology of insect circadian rhythms. In Treherne, J. E., Berridge, M. J. & Wigglesworth, V. B. (Eds.) Adv. Insect Physiol. 10, 1115.Google Scholar
Dethier, V. G. (1954). Notes on the biting response of tsetse flies. — Am. J. trop. Med. Hyg. 3, 160171.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, D. R. & Dethier, V. G. (1957). The regulation of taste thresholds for sugars in the blowfly. — J. Insect Physiol. 1, 317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gatehouse, A. G. (1970a). The probing response of Stomoxys calcitrans to certain physical and olfactory stimuli. — J. Insect Physiol. 16, 6174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gatehouse, A. G. (1970b). Interactions between stimuli in the induction of probing by Stomoxys calcitrans. — J. Insect Physiol. 16, 9911000.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hughes, J. C. (1957). Olfactory stimulation of tsetse flies and blowflies. — Bull. ent. Res. 48, 561579.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langley, P. A. (1972). The role of physical and chemical stimuli in the development of in vitro feeding techniques for tsetse flies Glossina spp. (Dipt., Glossinidae). — Bull. ent. Res. 62, 215228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margalit, J., Galun, R. & Rice, M. J. (1972). Mouthpart sensilla of the tsetse fly and their function I: feeding patterns. — Ann. trop. Med. Parasit. 66, 525536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed