Tsetse flies ( Glossina morsitans morsitans ) choose birthing sites guided by substrate cues with no evidence for a role of pheromones

Adden, Andrea K., Haines, Lee ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8821-6479, Acosta-Serrano, Alvaro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2576-7959 and Prieto-Godino, Lucia L. (2023) 'Tsetse flies ( Glossina morsitans morsitans ) choose birthing sites guided by substrate cues with no evidence for a role of pheromones'. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Vol 290, Issue 1997.

Preview

Text rspb.2023.0030.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (901kB) | Preview

Abstract

Tsetse flies significantly impact public health and economic development in sub-Saharan African countries by transmitting the fatal disease African trypanosomiasis. Unusually, instead of laying eggs, tsetse birth a single larva that immediately burrows into the soil to pupate. Where the female chooses to larviposit is, therefore, crucial for offspring survival. Previous laboratory studies suggested that a putative larval pheromone, n-pentadecane, attracts gravid female Glossina morsitans morsitans to appropriate larviposition sites. However, this attraction could not be reproduced in field experiments. Here, we resolve this disparity by designing naturalistic laboratory experiments that closely mimic the physical characteristics found in the wild. We show that gravid G. m. morsitans were neither attracted to the putative pheromone nor, interestingly, to pupae placed in the soil. By contrast, females appear to choose larviposition sites based on environmental substrate cues. We conclude that, among the many cues that likely contribute to larviposition choice in nature, substrate features are a main determinant, while we failed to find evidence for a role of pheromones.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	QX Parasitology > QX 20 Research (General) WA Public Health > WA 30 Socioeconomic factors in public health (General) WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 705 Trypanosomiasis
Faculty: Department:	Biological Sciences > Vector Biology Department
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0030
SWORD Depositor:	JISC Pubrouter
Depositing User:	JISC Pubrouter
Date Deposited:	27 Apr 2023 09:01
Last Modified:	27 Apr 2023 09:01
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/22409

Statistics

View details

Actions (login required)

Edit Item