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The bionomics of Glossina; a review with hypothetical conclusions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Extract

There are certain frequently observed and rather mysterious phenomena associated with the bionomics of the better known species of Glossina; such, for example, as the local disparity between the sexes and the apparently arbitrary distribution of the fly. It is difficult, if not impossible, to explain these, or at least no explanation has yet been put forward which is wholly in agreement with all that has been recorded of the subject. It appears necessary in consequence to consider some part of the generally accepted bionomic history of these liies as being based on insufficient evidence.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1913

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References

page 95 note * Bull. Ent. Research III, 05 1912, p. 61.Google Scholar

page 97 note * Annals ot Trop. Medicine, iii, 10 1909, pp. 259276.Google Scholar

page 98 note * Deutsche mediziuische Wochenschrift, Nov. 1909; reviewed Bull. S. S. Bur. i, no. 11, p. 452.Google Scholar

page 98 note † Bull. S. S. Bur, vol. i, no. 12, p. 471.Google Scholar

page 98 note ‡ Rep. S. S. Comm. R. Soc. xii, 1912, pp. 79111.Google Scholar

page 98 note § More complete figures than were published, kindly supplied by Dr. Carpenter from his manuscript notes, indicate the percentage at Jinja to be as follows:—

page 99 note * Bull. Ent. Research, iii, 05 1912, p. 58.Google Scholar

page 102 note * [A similar observation has been made more recently by Dr. G. D. H. Carpenter.—Ed.]

page 102 note † It is the source of supply of some 2,000 or 3,000 puparia monthly for the laboratory at Mpumu.

page 103 note * ‘ Observations Relating to the Transmission of Sleeping Sickness in Uganda,’ by Dr. Aubrey, D. P., Bull, S. S.., 1909.Google Scholar

page 104 note * Migrating swarms of butterflies and moths are well known to occur far out at sea.

page 106 note * This rather frequently happens when an insect subjected to efficient natural control in one faunistic region is introduced into a new and favourable faunistic region where such control does not exist. Coccids, for example, may live for indefinite periods in large numbers on certain kinds of trees, without appreciably injuring the health of these trees, provided their increase is efficiently controlled. But without efficient control they quickly become so abundant as to cause the death of the particular varieties of plants on which they are absolutely dependent; these plants are replaced by other varieties, and the insect is for ever deprived ol its means to exist in that locality. This has actually taken place in America, following the introduction of the San José Scale, the Elm Leaf Beetle, the Gipsy Moth, etc.

page 107 note * The writer has his own method for basing judgment on what is of utility or benefit to a species (whether of insect or other animal), which it may not be out of place to outline. It is, briefly, a presumption that the aim in life of every species is to multiply and populate the earth—to exist permanently in the greatest numbers possible, over the widest territory possible. Anything favourable, in its final analysis, to greater local abundance or wider geographical dispersion is held to be advantageous—or vice versa.