Glossina morsitans is a species of tsetse fly in the genus Glossina. It is one of the major vectors of Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense^[1] in African savannas.^[2]

Quick Facts Glossina morsitans, Scientific classification ...

Glossina morsitans
by [[es:User:Estefanía Alonso Gómez]]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Family:	Glossinidae
Genus:	Glossina
Species:	G. morsitans
Binomial name
Glossina morsitans Westwood, 1851

Close

Glossina morsitans is variously classified into the subgenus Glossina^[2] or as the name species of a morsitans species group. Note that this includes both subspecies G. m. centralis and G. m. morsitans, and G. pallidipes.^[2][3]

G. m. submorsitans is a common substitute for G. m. morsitans,^[4][3] or rarely as a full species G. submorsitans.

G.m.s. is further subdivided into a G. m. s. ugandensis.^[5]

Flight muscles are primarily powered by proline, which is synthesized from fatty acids mobilised out of the fat body. Proline is so efficiently used in muscle mitochondria because they are specialised towards proline oxidising enzymes, and away from enzymes using fatty acids and pyruvate.^[9]

G. morsitans is found heavily throughout East Africa and Equatorial Africa: Angola,^[10][3] Benin,^[3] Botswana,^[10][3] Burkina Faso,^[10][3] Burundi,^[10][3] Cameroon,^[10][3] Central African Republic,^[3] Chad,^[10][3] Democratic Republic of the Congo,^[10][3] Ethiopia,^[10][3] The Gambia,^[10][3] Ghana,^[3] Guinea,^[3] Guinea-Bissau,^[3] Ivory Coast,^[10][3] Kenya,^[10][3] Malawi,^[10][3] Mali,^[10][3] Mozambique,^[10][3] Namibia,^[10][3] Niger,^[10][3] Nigeria,^[10][3] Rwanda,^[3] Senegal,^[10][3] Sierra Leone,^[3] South Africa,^[10] Sudan,^[10][3] Tanzania,^[10][3] Togo,^[10][3] Uganda,^[10][3] Zambia,^[10][3] and Zimbabwe.^[10][3]

G. morsitans feeds upon warthogs, oxen, buffaloes, kudus, and humans.^[1] About 6% of G. m. s.'s bloodmeals come from birds (excluding ostriches).^[3]

A sequence was made available in 2014. Among other results this reveals that G. morsitans's genome has incorporated some of its Wolbachia symbiont's genome (see also § Symbionts below).^[11] The sense of taste of G. m. m. lacks the sense of sweetness - which may be due to its exclusively hematophagous diet.^[12]

G. m. m. is in obligate symbiosis with Wigglesworthia glossinidia and Wolbachia. Without Wigglesworthia, G. m. m. is sterile, and without Wolbachia they are reproductively incompatible with normal flies.^[15]

Trypanosomiasis transmitted by G. morsitans and other tsetse species is one of the largest economic problems Africa faces. It has radically altered the cattle agroeconomy across the middle of Africa, severely shrinking the cattle pastoral lifestyle by shrinking the extent of safe grazing lands. This has left about 10,400,000 square kilometres (4,000,000 sq mi) of otherwise usable land devoid of cattle. Raising cattle in the manner common in 1963, this would have allowed for another 125,000,000 head - more than doubling the 114,000,000 being raised at the time.^[16]