Influence of Age and Feeding on the Success of Mating in a Tsetse Fly Species

Abstract

THE act of mating affects insect reproduction in several ways¹. First, it may be a necessary stimulus for the initiation of oocyte development, as is found in the bedbug, Cimex lectularious². Second, the act of mating may set in motion an accelerated rate of egg maturation³. Third, copulation may induce oviposition rather than affect the processes leading to the attainment of full-term eggs; for example, in the mosquito, Aedes aegypti, blood-fed virgin females produce about the same number of mature eggs as mated females, but most of these are not deposited⁴. Finally, the act of mating may not have any apparent effect at all, either on egg development or egg deposition: at least one recent example of this, that of the cotton stainer, Dysdercus fastiatus, is well documented⁵.