Estimation of the interval between feeding and capture in peridomestic Glossina tachinoides

Abstract

From successive 24-hourly dissections of non-teneral field-caught Glossina tachinoides Westwood which had fed on a guinea-pig in the laboratory, the progressive movement of a bloodmeal through the midgut was monitored and five stages (categories) in the trophic cycle identified. The frequency distribution in these trophic categories of G.tachinoides subsequently caught in the peridomestic agro-ecosystem at Orie-Orba near Nsukka by means of the biconical trap revealed that males and females had fed 2.8 +/- 0.4 and 2.4 +/- 0.4 days respectively preceding their capture.