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.