Adenine nucleotides as feeding stimulants of the tsetse fly Glossina austeni Newst.

Abstract

THE feeding behaviour of the tsetse fly has attracted the attention of various investigators, and this was the first blood sucking insect to be fed artificially through a rat skin membrane1. This technique was later utilized by Yorke and Blacklock2 to study the feeding habits of Glossina palpalis. They found that Glossina feeds avidly through rat's skin, on fresh defibrinated blood and also on suspensions of washed red cells in normal saline. Tenfold dilutions of the blood in saline did not diminish its stimulatory effect. Neither plasma nor NaCl solution seemed to have any attraction for Glossina. Yorke and Blacklock observed that the attractive substance was in the water-soluble fraction of the erythrocytes. They thought that it was the haemoglobin, although a commercial preparation of haemoglobin gave hardly any feeding reaction.