Tsetse Fly and Big Game in Southern Rhodesia

Abstract

In Southern Rhodesia conditions are better than in most other parts of Africa for gathering information concerning the distribution of tsetse in the past, and perhaps even in the present. This is due to a combination of two factors, namely, that only one species of tsetse, Glossina morsitans, is found within our borders, and that the territory, in comparison with the Central African States, contains and has contained a relatively large European population. The first factor eliminates the possibility of confusion of species in connexion with the evidence forthcoming, at least in the case of those able to distinguish tsetse from other species of bloodsucking flies, whilst the second provides a more reliable source of information than the native.