Nature 219, 962 - 963 (31 August 1968); doi:10.1038/219962a0

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

THOMAS R. ODHIAMBO

Department of Zoology, University College, Nairobi, Kenya.

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 lectularious ². 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.

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