An effect of host diet on the attraction of tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae) to host odour

Abstract

In Zimbabwe, field studies were made of the extent to which catches of Glossina morsitans morsitans Westw. and G. pallidipes Aust. from stationary visual targets plus ox odour were changed by maintaining the ox on normal, starving or fattening diets. A fattening diet after a week of starvation often produced a several-fold increase in catches in a few days, followed by a declining catch associated with lack of appetite, and a further increase in catch when appetite was restored. Carbon dioxide and acetone emitted by the oxen could not account fully for the level and variations of catches.