Abstract
RECENTLY, considerable attention has been paid to a method of determining the physiological age of female insects of economic importance by the appearance of the ovarioles after ovulation. This method, which was originally worked out by Soviet entomologists1,2 for Anopheles, and has since been extended to other blood-sucking Diptera, depends upon the recognition of the number of follicular relics (‘corpora lutea’) appearing as dilatations of the follicular tubes. Each dilatation represents the relic of a single egg follicle and is evidence of a gonotrophic cycle. If the duration of the cycle is known it is possible to calculate the calendar age of the female, a factor of great practical application in determining the epidemiological importance of populations of insect vectors or the degree of success of control programmes. In the laboratory, Bertram and Samarawickrema3 recognized Mansonioides uniformis which had completed five gonotrophic cycles by the presence of five dilatations in the follicular tubes. A study of the ovarioles of Glossina morsitans after ovulation has been made, and it is suggested that a similar method of determining the physiological age of female tsetse flies should be possible.
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SAUNDERS, D. Determination of Physiological Age for Female Glossina morsitans . Nature 186, 651 (1960). https://doi.org/10.1038/186651a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/186651a0
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