Third report on Glossina investigations in Nyasaland

Abstract

I remained in the proclaimed area till 6th August 1915, then returning to the vicinity of Monkey Bay for the purpose of endeavouring to establish artificial breeding places on a large scale.While in the proclaimed area I took the opportunity of completing my survey of the distribution of Glossina morsitans, especially in the neighbourhood of Rifu and Kuti described by Dr. Shircore (Bull. Ent. Res., v, p. 87) as “primary centres 1 and 2,” which I had been unable to examine last season before the advent of the rains. As in the case of “ centres 3 and 4,” at Nyansato and Lingadzi respectively, I have not been able to find that the fly is sufficiently localised, even when the dry season is far advanced, as to render feasible any attempt to control it by prophylactic clearing of the bush. In the Rifu district there is a range of rocky hills and high ground running more or less parallel to the lake, with corresponding modification of the soil, so that a zone of scrub has sprung up, from half a mile to two miles in width, consisting very largely of thorn bush, among which are a few big trees. Towards the north this gradually dwindles, to be replaced by the borassus palms usually growing in the sandy ground along the Lake shore, and towards the south it gradually widens out and becomes continuous with the Kuti bush some five miles distant. Throughout its whole extent the fly was plentiful.