Tsetse Fly

• GeneralIt carries sleeping sickness; the female gives birth to fully developed larvae, one at a time.
• It is viviparous: it lays no eggs but gestates a single larva inside the uterus and feeds it on a milky secretion produced by a specialised gland, with proteins analogous to those of mammalian milk.
• That strategy gives it a very low fecundity — between eight and ten offspring in a lifetime, compared with a mosquito's hundreds — and that is precisely what makes it vulnerable to population control.
• It is the only vector of the African trypanosomes, which cause sleeping sickness in people and nagana in livestock.
• The larva is born already mature and burrows immediately to pupate; the female chooses the site with great care, because her whole output for that cycle depends on the decision.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat and environment

Wooded savannah and gallery forest

Size at birth

The larva is deposited already developed onto loose soil and burrows to pupate within 60-90 minutes; the puparial phase lasts about 35 days on average, with a range of 3 to 13 weeks

Sexual maturity

The female can mate one day after emerging from the puparium; a single copulation leaves her fertile for life

Gestation / incubation

Each larva develops in the uterus for about 9 or 10 days

Litter / clutch size

A single larva per cycle, between 8 and 10 over the female's lifetime

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Glossina morsitans · Parasitipedia, ficha Glossina spp · icipe (Centro Internacional de Fisiologia y Ecologia de Insectos) · Animal Diversity Web, Glossina morsitans · Animal Diversity Web · Merck Veterinary Manual · Parasitipedia · Merck Veterinary Manual, ficha Tsetse flies

Best time: Active all year, but only between 18 and 32 °C; below 18 °C it becomes inactive and it does not leave the lowlands