Rearing Aphids to use in Virus-Vectors Studies

Abstract

The genus Glossina contains 31 taxa (21 species and eight subspecies), assigned to four species groups: Austenina (=fusca group), Nemorhina (=palpalis group), Glossina s. str. (=morsitans group) and Machadomyia (=austeni group). It has been suggested that the superior claspers of the malebecome progressively more complicated through the groups fusca-palpalismorsitans indicating the ancestral nature of the fusca group (Newstead et al. 1924). The analysis of 14 enzyme loci has also indicated that members of the fusca group appear to be the most divergent (Gooding et al. 1991). The recent phylogenetic analysis of different Glossina species based on their nuclear gene sequence analysis, further supports their taxonomic placement into four subgenera, where the fusca group forms the ancestral subgenus, followed by the closely related morsitans, palpalis, and austeni species groups (Chen et al. 1999). The genus is restricted to sub-Saharan Africa where its different species occupy diverse habitats. The palpalis and fusca groups require high humidity and live mainly in riverine gallery and primary forests of Central and West Africa or in relict forests of eastern Africa while the morsitans group species have a wide distribution in drier savanna and thicket habitats.