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Pest Species

Tsetse Fly

Glossina swynnertoni

Glossina morsitans

Tsetse Flies

Tanzania

Shinyanga Region

Control Measure

Synopsis

“Vanderplank () 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 At the end of the trial, G. swynnertoni had been replaced by G. m. centralis, but G. m. centralis could not survive long in the region because of its aridity.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

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Hybridization between Glossina Species and Suggested New Method for Control of Certain Species of Tsetse

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F. L. Vanderplank,  Nature,  154:607-608. 1944.
Corson and Potts record crossing Glossina swynnertoni Aust. with G. morsitans Westwood. Corson crossed twelve female G. morsitans with male G. swynnertoni, of which only two females produced a total of three pupæ. All his females lived long enough for reproduction to take place. ...
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