Pest Species
Glossina swynnertoni
Glossina morsitans
Tsetse Flies
Tanzania
Shinyanga Region
Glossina swynnertoni
Glossina morsitans
Tsetse Flies
Shinyanga Region
“Vanderplank (88) and colleagues carried out an experiment, in 1943, in which G. swynnertoni was eliminated from a region of Tanzania that had experienced a human trypanosomiasis epidemic. G. swynnertoni is allopatric to the closely related G. morsitans and they freely mate with each other. Vanderplank released into an isolated G. swynnertoni population field-collected G. m. centralis puparia. Hybrid females were semisterile and the males were completely so. At the end of the trial, G. swynnertoni had been replaced by G. m. centralis, but G. m. centralis could not survive long in the region because of its aridity. The region then became essentially tsetse fly–free and was reinhabited by the people who were driven out by the earlier trypanosomiasis epidemic. This was the first field trial of a genetic control method.”
Gooding, R. H. & Krafsur, E. S. (2004) TSETSE GENETICS: Contributions to Biology, Systematics, and Control of Tsetse Flies. Annual Review of Entomology 50, 101-123, doi: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ento.50.071803.130443
F.L. Vanderplank