Selection and mating of female tsetse for the experiment
The G. m. morsitans colony at LSTM is maintained in 10 trays
corresponding to each week of life. Female flies older than ten weeks
are killed. To select females for the experiment, we collected pupae
from each tray over a one-week period. There was up to four days
difference in date of emergence. Only females that had taken the first
blood meal that was offered were used, because our experience of rearing
colony flies showed that feeding shortly after emergence is crucial for
the first few weeks of survival. Newly emerged females were mated at a
ratio of 2:1 (female:male) with one-week old males for 48 hours and then
males were removed. We then selected 96 females for each treatment
group.