Site and Insemination Time of Glossina palpalis palpalis (Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830) in a Forest Area, Côte d’Ivoire

Abstract

Spermathecae of female Glossina palpalis palpalis were examined to obtain data on their insemination. The study was conducted near the village of Zomenin in the forest area of Daloa (lat. 7-6° N, long. 7-8° W) in Côte d’Ivoire. Glossina were caught with Vavoua traps in four types of tsetse fly biotopes: coffee plantation (pupa site), edge between coffee plantation and forest, footpaths, and village outskirts. Out of 9175 Glossina examined, only a few had empty spermathecae (0.83%). The majority of virgin Glossina were immature females, which therefore had not fed yet (93.42%). They were mainly collected on pupa sites (71.05%) or on their edges (19.74%). No virgin female was found among Glossina that were 10 to 39 days of age. On the other hand, 0.05% of the 4460 very old Glossina (i.e. over 40 days of age) had empty spermathecae. Results suggest that Glossina insemination took place in pupa sites, a few days only after emergence of the imago (1-3 days). In addition, females of this species seemed to have mated before their first blood meal on the very site of emergence.