Animal profile

Tsetse fly

InsectaWoodland, riverine forest and savannah vegetation across tropical Africa

Field profile

Tsetse flies are robust brown flies of the genus Glossina in which both sexes feed exclusively on vertebrate blood. They fold their wings scissor-fashion over the abdomen at rest. They are the biological vectors of the trypanosomes that cause human sleeping sickness and animal nagana.

Published field notes

2025-12-12

Tsetse fly

The tsetse fly gives birth to live young

Instead of laying eggs, a female tsetse retains one larva at a time in her uterus and feeds it on a milky secretion. She deposits it fully grown, and it burrows into soil and pupates within about an hour of birth.

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