A Receptor-Based Explanation for Tsetse Fly Catch Distribution between Coloured Cloth Panels and Flanking Nets.

ABSTRACT: Tsetse flies transmit trypanosomes that cause nagana in cattle, and sleeping sickness in humans. Therefore, optimising visual baits to control tsetse is an important priority. Tsetse are intercepted at visual baits due to their initial attraction to the bait, and their subsequent contact with it due to landing or accidental collision. Attraction is proposed to be driven in part by a chromatic mechanism to which a UV-blue photoreceptor contributes positively, and a UV and a green photoreceptor contribute negatively. Landing responses are elicited by stimuli with low luminance, but many studies also find apparently strong landing responses when stimuli have high UV reflectivity, which would imply that UV wavelengths contribute negatively to attraction at a distance, but positively to landing

SUBMITTER: Santer RD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4608566 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature