Nk. Maniania et A. Odulaja, Effect of species, age, and sex of tsetse on response to infection by Metarhizium anisopliae, BIOCONTROL, 43(3), 1998, pp. 311-323
Laboratory studies were carried out to determine the effect of sex and age
on the susceptibility of tsetse, Glossina morsitans morsitans and G. m. cen
tralis, to the entomopathogenic fungus, Metarhizium anisopliae. Both specie
s of host flies were susceptible to fungal infection. Female flies were gen
erally more susceptible than male flies. Three host ages (40, 20, and <1 da
y-old) were used; the youngest group was most resistant to fungal infection
. Interactions between species, sex and age were significant on many occasi
ons. Age usually accounted for the largest variability in mortality, follow
ed by sex. All flies of age 40 days died between 7 and 8 days after infecti
on whereas some of the younger flies, especially age 0, lived longer than 1
0 days. Log(10) day probit (LDP) mortality regressions fitted well to most
of the data sets. LDP slopes were significant and high, ranging between 4.3
and 12.8, indicating a generally high mortality rate of increase over days
. The slopes differed significantly between species, sexes, and ages, but g
rouping by age was more intra homogeneous than by species or sex. The 50% l
ethal time mortalities (LT50) ranged between 4 and 7 days for age 0, 3 and
6 days for age 20, and about 5 days for age 40. Corresponding ranges of the
LT95 were 8 to 20, 5 to 10, and 6 to 7 days for ages 0, 20 and 40, respect
ively. The significance of these results in the fungal disease transmission
by tsetse is discussed.