The life cycle of the tsetse fly.

Life of the tsetse fly

London : Wellcome Trust, 1987.

1 film reel (10 min.) : sound, colour ; 16 mm.
1 film reel (10 min.) (silent) : silent, colour ; 16 mm.

00:10:00

Wellcome Trust 1987; 2008

In English.

Wellcome Trust Film Unit -- writer and narrator, Dr. L.G. Goodwin, F.R.S.; director and photographer, Douglas Fisher.

Narrator, Dr. L.G. Goodwin, F.R.S.

Filmed at the Medical Research Council's Tsetse Research Laboratories, Langford, Bristol and at Kariba, Zimbabawe.

Original cinefilm version has slightly longer duration than digitised version.

Segment 1 Close-up shots of the tsetse fly are seen. The commentary explains that adult flies measure from 6mm to 14mm in length and are found in habitats ranging from the rain forest to the dry savannah woodland. The species Glossina Morsitans occurs in the savannah woodlands at the end of the dry seasons; there is close-up footage of one lowering its proboscis into the skin of a man's hand. Glossina Morsitans feed on warthogs, antelopes and cattle; we see further shots of it feeding on its host, sucking up the host's blood, doubling the fly's own weight. The distinction between male and female tsetse is shown as is their mating process. A sex recognition pheromone is produced to assist mating and a male is shown attempting to mate with a decoy soaked in the pheromone solution. A detailed diagram showing the sexual organs of the female tsetse fly and the reproductive cycle is shown. The tsetse fly is unusual in that it produces only one larvae at a time. The larvae feed on milk produced by the uterine glands and moult twice as they grow, swelling to the size of the mother's abdomen. We see the mother fly give birth to the larvae, which comes out tail first. Time start:00:00:00:00 Time end: 00:04:38:11 Length: 00:04:38:11

Segment 2 The larvae burrows itself head first into the soil. The buried larvae is shown in a time-lapse sequence pupating into a black puparium. An x-ray of it shows the two moults that take place in the pupae; the first producing the pupa, the second the imago. A man in woodland collects tsetse flies for laboratory work. We are shown in close-up how the imago breaks the anterior end of the puparium and struggles out underground, then crawls to the surface. A further time-lapse sequence shows the imago at rest while its wing veins fill with fluid, then dry out. The fly searches for a new host and the life cycle is complete. Time start: 00:04:38:11 Time end: 00:08:22:12 Length: 00:03:44:01