Metamorphosis behaviour and regulation in tsetse flies (Glossinaspp.) (Diptera: Glossinidae): a review

Abstract

This review examines the recent literature on tsetse (Glossina spp.) metamorphosis behaviour and its regulation. The behavioural events associated with metamorphosis are highly specific and most occur only once during the life of the fly. The review begins with the larva's commitment to metamorphosis and then discusses the behaviour associated with parturition, wandering of the third instar larva, pupariation, pupation and adult eclosion. While certain aspects of tsetse metamorphosis behaviour are common to the higher Diptera, the peculiar reproductive strategy of tsetse has dictated many modifications. Most notable of the tsetse peculiarities are the larva's late commitment to metamorphosis, the contribution by the mother in deciding the onset of the wandering period, the brevity of the wandering period, the involvement of the nervous system in co-ordinating puparial tanning, the tight packaging of the pupa within the puparium, the long duration of pharate adult development, and the great expansion of the body that occurs following eclosion. A final section discusses the potential for disrupting tsetse metamorphosis. IntroductionThis review examines the behavioural events associated with metamorphosis in tsetse (Glossina spp.) and discusses the regulation of these activities by the endocrine and nervous systems. Successful metamorphosis requires the performance of sets of behaviours that are developmentally specific and must be executed with precision and in the proper sequence. We start with the third instar larva's commitment to metamorphosis and then discuss the subsequent sequence of events that includes parturition, wandering behaviour, pupariation, intrapuparial behaviour, and finally adult eclosion. Though other reviews provide a more general survey of Diptera metamorphosis behaviour (Zdarek, 1985; Denlinger & Zdarek, in press), tsetse, in many respects, do not fit the pattern of other flies. For example, corn-

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“…If required, additional males can be added from day four. This process can be manipulated by adjusting the incubation temperature during the emergence period from 24 °C to 26.5 °C, which results in almost complete sex separation in some species [ 39 , 40 ]. However, it has proven quite difficult in practice to maintain consistent separation, presumably due to issues of incubation temperature stability, and the system does not work well with some species due to a large overlap in female and male emergence.…”

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“…Between these latitude limits, the species of Glossina are widely but not universally distributed, though one or more occur wherever the environment is suitable. Temperature plays an important role in determining the limit of tsetse distribution; normally temperatures below 7•C above 39•C are taken as critical preventing the development of the puparia (Žďárek & Denlinger, 1993). Species that are included in this genus fall into three well defined groups referred to as the Fusca group which mainly consist of species which inhabit forest vegetations; the Palpalis group of which most of the members are the riverine species found on the western part of Africa; and lastly the Morsitans group; the savannah tsetse flies, which are found in large areas of southern and Eastern Africa (Buxton, 1955;Jordan, 1986).…”